Tidalis:0.991 Beta Release

Notes From The Producer: July 13, 2010

This is the second candidate for official release. My wife and I ran into a small rash of issues with network play and some of the VS and co-op modes, and those have now been fixed. We're looking good for release soon, but we could definitely use all the testing anyone cares to help out with, especially in the networking, VS, and co-op modes.

--Christopher M. Park

Gameplay Updates

• VS Garbage Battle has been overhauled to a degree, with more varied garbage blocks that don't block up the well to quite the same degree as before. There are now color reactive and color blocker blocks in addition to the glass and charred blocks; these can at least be used in chains, which prevents the "no moves left" situation from occurring as often.

• A new rule has been added to the basic existing ruleset of VS Endurance:
  • Additionally, every time a player completes a chain of at least 6 blocks, the speed-up value is increased for their opponent and decreased for themselves. The formula for adjusting the speed-up value is the number of blocks in the chain divided by eleven minus the combo level of the chain.
  • This particular VS mode turned out to be kind of lame the way it was before, but this makes it a lot more cut-throat and interesting. And something you can't just recreate with Custom Games + VS Freeform.

Misc

• The buttons at the bottom of the game over popup after losing a VS match now match what they would be after winning; given the context, this makes the most sense.

• When one player views the help window during network play, the help window is now shown for both players.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where story-related achievements were always being awarded one level too late.

• Fixed a moderately rare crash that could occur during network play in co-op adventures when restarting certain levels.

• Fixed a crash bug that could occur when switching between one active level and another active level (as with a restart or similar) during network play. Players had to click really fast to make this happen, but it's fixed now.

• Fixed a bug in Garbage Drop VS mode that could cause an entire crop of garbage blocks to all fall in one stack on the right side of the board, rather than spread out as they should have been.

• Fixed a bug where "play again" during quick and custom games in network play was not working properly.

• Fixed a bug where "play again" after a VS match was not working properly.

• Fixed a bug where block placement items were not working sometimes, particularly in sun or moon mode.

Internal Programming Notes

Tidalis