Valley 2:Pre-Beta Release Notes

Alpha .701

We haven't released this version yet, we're still working on it.

• Added 57 more slices.
  • Thanks to c4sc4, Coppermantis and zebramatt for these.

• Fixed an image file that was throwing up errors.
  • Thanks to Misery for sending in the debug log that allowed us to track this one down.

• The "What's New" link on the main menu now actually links to the appropriate place.

• We managed to waste 18 man-hours chasing Unity 4.0 support (and thus Linux support), but ran into intractable performance problems with load times. Sigh.

• The default gamepad controls are actually now sane.

• Fixed a bug with the notes-to-self popup coming up about the first windstorm generator even at the end of purified regions. Oops. ;)

• Fixed some slices that were causing rooms to be impassible.
  • Thanks to c4sc4 for one specific case, and to Misery, who's save pointed to a bit more widespread issue.

• The way that the dispatch mission results are now reported is that one of the surviving members of the party you send out actually makes an in-character report. We'd always planned on doing this, but hadn't quite had time to fully flesh that out before the first alpha.
  • If NONE of the members of the party you send out survive, then you get a different message informing you of their mass death...

• Previously our "text interjection" (aka, dialogue popup that temporarily suspends action) system was something that could only have one item going at a time. This was problematic if you needed to get multiple reports of survivor deaths at the end of one turn, or similar, without us having to resort to vague statements like "one or more survivors died" or 4th-wall-breaking statements like "here's the list of who died."
  • Now the game has a queuing system for text interjections that lets any number of statements get queued up at once without stomping on one another, which is a lot more flexible. The vast majority of the time you'd still get one at a time, but when a big event happens and everyone is screaming things at you, you now can hear what everyone says instead of just one thing. ;)

• The starting number of purified tiles now varies a bit more, as it makes sure that a couple of key structures start out purified so that you can get a bit of hand-holding on the first two turns.

Clarity/Training Improvements

• Previously, on the world map there was a line about "press this button to view your feats" even if you had none. That was confusing and just added to clutter. Plus the window would just open up with nothing to see. Now the game just makes that button do nothing, and hides that line of instruction, until you have your first feat.

• Previously, it was easily possible to forget to give dispatch orders to your NPCs before you went on your next purification mission. Chris even did this in his video before he remembered and went back out!
  • Now the game warns you about this and gives you a confirm prompt that makes sure that you want to enter a corrupted region without giving dispatch orders first. Given that there is really almost no reason you'd ever want to do this, this confirmation has no opt-out to "don't tell me this again." But if you want to enter the region anyway, the prompt does let you do that.

• Previously, whenever you went to the world map there was an opt-out popup (until you disabled it) explaining a bit about the world map and how things work.
  • That was clunky, and has been removed.

• Now when you first go to the world map on turn 1, there is a conversation that you have with one of your NPCs, who explains a slight bit more than before, but a more focused bit of explanation.
  • There are also instructions on your first turn to build a clinic, and the game won't let you do any other dispatch missions that turn.
  • It also won't let you leave the world map until you've done this first mission, just to make sure things are as clear as possible for the first turn.

• After you run your first dispatch mission on turn 1, the game now has another brief text interlude with one of your NPCs, where it quickly explains about your role in purifying tiles and how to choose a general target.

Balance Changes

• The campfire spell now has very little attack power and a much longer cooldown, making it useful as a defensive blocker spell as opposed to a torch-everything attack spell.
• LightRocket hits for about half what it once did.
  • Thanks to several of our alpha players for letting us know how badly these needed changing.

• Clinging Nettles has been nerfed some.
  • There were several reports of this, thanks to everyone who mentioned it.

• Slime Mass has had his shot speed cut in half.
  • He's hard to hit as is, it's nearly impossible when the shot was coming at you that fast.

A Valley Without Wind 2 aka Valley 2