Patch Info
Recommended Level: 26-30
Summary
Now everyone can get wet and scared on the Lost Ship!
Details
(This patch basically moves the Frontline content to the Stable branch - so Frontline players don't need to read this)
Players on the Stable branch can finally access the Lost Ship and the surrounding extra content!
Something to note: this release might be a bit less stable than regular Stable updates, since I've fixed a lot of bugs that hasn't passed through Frontline (and sometimes fixing a bug might lead to unintended behavior elsewhere - we have all seen the classic programming movie Butterfly Effect). The reason is because I added a pretty big feature to the Translation Tools that I realized would break the game for all those who play with translations if not everyone got their game updated at the same time. I apologize in advance, and will be keeping a close eye on things so I can fix any issues as quickly as possible!
Soundtrack Update
The soundtrack should update sometime today to include all the new tracks!
DRM-Free Update
The DRM-free version on the Humble Store will be updated next week! Since that installer does not automatically update, I want to observe the build for at least a few days to make sure as few bugs as possible slip into that installer.
What's Next
A few weeks back we had a discussion about what was left to do. We are, after all, at the doorstep to the end of the game - main story wise, at any rate!
As many of you know, there are a number of "holes" in the game right now: promises with no conclusion, like those wobbly plants, the house visible from Evergrind East, the strange stump in Seasonne, and so forth.
In essence, the four big parts left to do are: Final Dungeon, Game Finale, Arcade Mode Finish and Filling The Holes. The Game Finale will be very content heavy so we feel it's best to separate it from the dungeon leading up to it.
Initially, we were really intent to steam ahead and go with the Final Dungeon, but thinking about it some more we actually didn't like that approach. If we kept on thinking like that, would Filling The Holes be the last thing we did? That didn't seem very exciting, and might also inadvertently trigger people who have resolved to wait until the finished product to instead buy it early "since the story is finished", and getting a rather weird experience for someone expecting a finished game.
So instead we've decided to do things in the following order:
- Filling The Holes
- Arcade Mode (add Desert + Ghost Ship floors)
- Final Dungeon
- Game Finale (including a proper "finish line" for Arcade Mode runs)
- Release!
- Post Release*
In other words: the next segment we'll be working on is resolving the "promises" found throughout the game! Some of you might feel a bit deflated since you're eager for the conclusion to the story, and we feel you (since we are, too), but unless we add these things now the timing will be even more awkward!
The filled in holes will arrive chopped up as several Frontline patches, and possibly even more than one Stable update, since many of them are small, self-contained systems, quests and areas that can be polished to Stable quality individually.
We've actually become quite excited about the coming segment, and hope we can make you happy with what comes out of it!
* Post Release content will range from balance changes to brand new content, as well as adding backer rewards for people who sent in their design requests late
Patch Notes
Hotfix 0.880c (April 15th)
- A new loading tip has been added, describing the feature of increasing respawns when grinding
- Zoning out of the ghost bridge room while the screen is zoomed in no longer make it remain that way
- Braazlet no longer remains in inventory when she shouldn't be
- The Ghost Ship bridge room should now work more smoothly in multiplayer
- The Lost Ship's end boss has received some further performance optimizations when in prolonged fights
- Fixed a crash in Tai Ming if watching memory orbs in a specific order after finishing the first area
- Fixed an obscure multiplayer crash while fighting the Living Fridge in the Lost Ship
- Fixed a potential multiplayer crash at the Lost Ship's end boss during his weapon throw move
Hotfix 0.880b (April 3rd)
- The rolling, exploding eyes are no longer named 'Cacute'
- Fixed some usability issues with the translation tools
- The Thorn Worm card and shield can no longer damage enemies meant to be untargetable
- Insect Swarm and Spirit Slash no longer cause Boss names to be redundantly displayed in the corner
Additions
- All Lost Ship-patches has been merged into Stable!
Changes
- Added the option for Translators to use conditionals outside of dialogues
- If a player seem to not understand how Twilight Mode works, they'll get a hint inside the first twilight battle room
Bug Fixes
- You can no longer temporarily soft-lock the game by teleporting out of the Evil Eye fight
- Defending against a boss attack with Perfect Barrier (aka casting it the moment before getting hit), no longer pushes them away
- Vegetable pets should no longer randomly get stuck in a jumping animation
- The Giant Scimitar no longer has a graphical glitch when using Heroic Slam
- Taunt should now work properly on the Lost Ship enemies
- Fixed a bunch of text mistakes
- Spirit Slashing slimes in 'Startington?' now shows their proper names
- While inside the Twilight Bridge room, blink will now reset its position upon shift to prevent getting stuck
- The adverse effect of using the Blade of Echoes is now cancelled if entering a cutscene
- During the final cutscene of the Lost Ship, all player-effects are cancelled to avoid certain visual bugs
- Dying against Captain Bones while water balls are present no longer leave behind fake-bubbles
- In multiplayer, the Lost Ship's last boss no longer retains its target indicator after defeated
- The Lost Ship's last boss can no longer be targeted or damaged during cutscenes
- Improved a number of small polish issues regarding the ship's final cutscene in multiplayer
- The note in the Lost Ship's cargo hold now has a working indicator
- Fixed a bug where the Skeleton Wizards' elite projectiles would get the wrong IDs on clients, disrupting other spells
- The cleaning ghost should now sync better between server and clients
- Ribb now plays the proper animation for clients after giving him his item
- Talking to Spengler while not gathered in multiplayer no longer crashes the game
- Talking to Marino after the Collector's Exams no longer crashes the game
- In Arcade Mode, the Camera item is now disabled inside the Arcadia Arena
More Insight
If you want to follow the progress and get a glimpse of the wonderful hell/heaven hybrid that is game development, you can check out our DevBlog! Be warned that it contains spoilers, though!
