Valley 2:Post-Launch Release Notes

Official 1.509

(Not yet released; we're still working on it!)

Official 1.508

(Released July 14th, 2015)

• Updated the game to use unity 4.6.7 rather than version 4.2.1f4. This solves some gamepad compatibility issues with xbox 360 controllers on OSX Yosemite, as well as improving some general stuff with linux.

• Updated the game code to immediately load its sprite text images, preventing some graphics corruption with text that could happen in rare cases.

• Fixed an issue where the "connected to steam" message on the left of the screen would be smeared along that side of the screen for a bit on first load.

• A new input binding set for XBox 360 controllers on OSX is now included with the game -- the mappings for the latest OSX drivers are very different from those on windows, turns out.
  • Additionally, the labels for the xbox buttons no longer are present on OSX, because they vary by driver. So it just refers to them by underlying gamepad button index.

Official 1.506

(Released January 5, 2015)

• Since 2010 when we switched to the Unity 3D engine, we've been using their WWW class to load images from the disk asynchronously. However, in more recent versions of unity it's been a case where for a small number of people, if they had multiple network adapters on their machine, then the WWW loads from their own disk would load incredibly slowly. We didn't know until now what exactly caused that.
  • We've now created a new internal ArcenAsyncFile class that is our own implementation of the asynchronous disk calls (and will later be extended for network calls as well). This has been tested on windows, osx, and ubuntu, and it not only works, but seems to load noticeably faster than before. This should also bypass the issue that the WWW class had with getting oddly slow (if it doesn't, then something _seriously_ strange is going on, as they have almost no code in common).
  • Thanks to Vanreis for the latest report, and figuring out that this was related to the number of network adapters.

• The WWW class is no longer used for checking for game updates, but instead the new ArcenAsyncFile is now used.
  • This _should_ provide more fault tolerance when programs like AVAST want to kill the ability of the game to check for updates. Knock on wood!

Official 1.505

(Released December 22, 2014)

• Fixed an issue with reading in configuration files for particle effects on systems with language settings that use the comma for decimal places rather than the period.
  • Thanks to Amateur and whoozle for reporting.

Official 1.504

(Released November 6, 2014)

• Fixed a bug where the icon for the Feather Flight spell was not loading, and thus was causing errors in the escape menu when you went there (as well as just having a blank icon in the main view). This was pretty much just a cosmetic issue, but it was definitely annoying what with throwing errors.
  • Thanks to Clearbeard for reporting.

Official 1.503

(Released August 29, 2014)

• Fixed an issue on linux where the multiplayer server could not be launched via the in-game menu.
  • Thanks to Lucki for reporting.

Official 1.502

(Released July 28, 2014)

• The compression of certain image assets, and thus the related RAM usage, has been improved. This reduces the maximum possible RAM footprint from 3GB to 2GB, although most typical use cases are still far lower than that unless you play for a really long session.

• Fixed an issue on linux where the ContemporarySideDoor image could not be properly loaded because of case-sensitivity. We've also now tested all the other images and they should all be good to go on linux.
  • Thanks to windgen for reporting.

Official 1.501

(Released July 17, 2014)

• Fixed an issue where the linux versions were not able to set their screen resolution.
  • Thanks to GuardianTce for reporting.

Official 1.500 Linux Support!

(Released July 16, 2014)

• Fixed a crash bug that could happen if you visit the achievements tab prior to ever getting any achievements on your very first run of the game.

• The Unity engine (that runs the game) has been updated to version 4.2. For the most part this has no effect, although it does allow us to create a Linux version of the game for the first time.

• The new, faster, cross-OS updater that we first debuted in The Last Federation has now been brought to Valley 2.

• The OSX build is now universal (32bit or 64bit), rather than just being 32bit.

• Linux support (32bit and 64bit) has been added!

• Unless you use the public demo download, you no longer need to enter a CD key to turn the game from demo mode into full mode. This is very convenient for Steam, and for the download from our store.

Official 1.008 Sliced And Flung

(Released September 17, 2013)

• Three new slices added.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for these.

• Fixed a display issue where the water charge shot on the littorist was showing as the level 1 version of the charge shot rather than the full charged version like other charge shots do.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

• Fixed a typo in explosive crescent that had already been fixed in the other crescent spells, but not this one.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

• The Earth Elemental Flinger _should_ now attack properly.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

• Charge shots were not properly getting their bonuses from secondary spell slot perks. Fixed.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

Official 1.007 Thorns In The Sink

(Released June 21, 2013)

• Thorn Burst Penta has been reverted to Thorn Burst, because that was OP. Thorn Mass Penta remains as it was in the prior release.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

• The ranges on the blast spells are now only 35% higher than the values two releases ago, rather than 50% higher.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

• Added some automatic resyncing for the strategic game data in Multiplayer.
  • Basically every time you give or undo an NPC order, advance a turn, lose morale due to a death, whatever... it should just completely copy the server's strategic data to all clients.
  • Let us know if things get weird with this, but in theory it should really help avoid various MP desync issues people have been running into on the strategy-game side.
  • Thanks to linca for reporting.

• Fixed a typo in the description of all the crescent spells.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting.

Official 1.006 Five Tier Rejuvenation

(Released June 18, 2013)

• Feathery rebound has had its attack power increased 3x.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

• The charge shots now show the power of a fully-charged shot rather than the completely-uncharged shot. The tooltip also now mentions this.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for inspiring this change.

• The attack power of all the charge shots has gone up by 1.4x the previous values, making them more attractive to use even at lower charge power levels (and way more attractive at the highest level).
  • These things just aren't fun when they are too lower-powered, and they also have quite a high opportunity cost if you miss with your high-powered attack.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

• Thorn Mass has become Thorn Mass Penta.
  • This fires five shots instead of one.
  • Ditto with Thorn Burst.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

• Heave Glacier has been heavily nerfed, bringing it down to the levels of Heave Boulder and Heave Magma. Not sure why it was so individually overpowered.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

• The attack of all the drone spells have been increased 1.3x, as those were less popular with many players because of the difficulty learning to hit with them.
  • This may now be a bit overpowered in the hands of expert players for using these, but hopefully it's actually about right.
  • Thanks to madcow for inspiring this change.

• All of the "blast" spells now have 50% more range, making them way more useful.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for suggesting.

Official 1.005 Fear Of Bats

(Released June 13, 2013)

• Giant Shadow Bats no longer show up outside of The Deep.
  • Thanks to abdulmuhsee for reporting how crazy this could make the overlord's keep on harder difficulties.

Official 1.004 Endless Lightning

(Released April 16, 2013)

• Fixed a bug where the "what would be purified if you purified this tile?" overlay was incorrectly reporting some craggy highlands tiles as being indirectly-purifiable.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for the report and save.

• Fixed a bug where the overlord's forces would not attack Warehouses or Salvage Yards.
  • Thanks to Winge for the report and save.

• The overlord's Lightning Storm spell is no longer eligible for "free casting" on a stratospheric citadel tile because it can make it impossible to really take down the citadel as long as the storm lasts (due to making the wound chance really high).
  • Thanks to Aquohn for inpsiring this change.

Official 1.003 But The Third One Stayed Up!

(Released March 9, 2013)

• The overlord's "free casting" of world-map area-spells on the purified stratospheric citadels now cannot pick firestorm because that prevents your NPCs from actually knocking it down for a really long time, etc.
  • It's still possible for the overlord's normal spell casting to happen to hit the citadel tiles with firestorm, but he won't intentionally try to do this and the circumstances that would lead to it are fairly rare, so that's fair game.
  • Thanks to windgen for the suggestion.

• Now the Cancel keybind can close the escape menu if the latter was open during a text interjection.
  • Thanks to Penumbra for the suggestion.

• Fixed a text error that still referred to the old "wounded" state for NPCs.
  • Thanks to Aklyon for the report.

• Fixed a bug that was preventing swamp castles from providing their movement-speed bonus, and also preventing the overlord/world-map-monsters from targeting/destroying them.
  • Thanks to Winge and Lokarin for the report.

• Fixed a slice that could be hard to traverse in certain situations.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

• Fixed a bug with the timing of cutscene playback if you're running at anything other than 60fps.

• Fixed an issue where XBox wireless controllers were not being detected as xbox controllers and thus used generic button names.

• Altered the last boss room so that there is no longer lava where Demonaica is likely to fall into it after he dies.
  • That said, you can still get the ending cutscene if his head falls into the lava, you just have to have enough health to survive being in there for a bit yourself.
  • Thanks to ulius for reporting.

• Demonaica is now able to pursue you throughout the final boss room (except in existing worlds where you have already visited the final boss room).
  • Thanks to windgen for reporting.

• When a cutscene is playing (aka the ending cutscene), your character now goes invincible as with any other text interjection.
  • Thanks to Platypus for suggesting.

• Fixed an issue with the final cutscene where if you were on a monitor larger than about 1280px wide, then the images would be cut off to the left and the text would not be properly centered, etc.

• When you are in the final boss room and have defeated the overlord, the credits now scroll across the bottom portion of the screen like they do in the main game. The idea here is to provide a really clear signal that the game is over, although you can still get to the final cutscene by examining a certain object that falls in this screen.

Official 1.002

(Released February 19, 2013)

• Fixed a bug in the prior version where mouse aiming was on by default.
  • Thanks to Varone for reporting.

• Updated the crates room to include text telling you that you can enable mouse aiming in the settings menu. Updated the controls display at the start of the game and the armory with the same.

Official 1.001 Mouse Aiming For Those Who Stood And Fought

(Released February 19, 2013)

• All players whose names appear on this page have had their names added to the credits of the game. :)
  • A HUGE thank you to each and every one of you. You are a big reason the game is what it is today.

• Fixed a bug that could occasionally cause exceptions to be thrown when first generating the interior of a new building.
  • Thanks to windgen, Vatticson, and Mick for reporting.

• Previously, there was a bug where the "enter NPC movement mode" keybind could work in side view, causing a warning message to pop up.
  • Thanks to Mick and Penumbra for reporting.

• Fixed a minor graphical issue where "molten lava damage" was reporting damage 100x higher than was actually being done to you.

Mouse Aiming Option Added To Settings

• An option has now been provided in the settings menu for "Enable Mouse Aiming."
  • This lets players who find keyboard or gamepad controls to be repugnant to experience the game in some manner. Our view is that this manner is sub-par and watered-down, but we've finally started looking at this as more of an accessibility mode. It's not ideal, but it allows a certain demographic to play who is otherwise unable/unwilling to do so.

• There is also a corresponding default keybinding set that has been added, which gives you WASD + mouse controls when used in tandem with the above option. Or you can set your own.