Templar Battleforce v0.0.9 Update Released

[Cory Trese]

v0.0.9 is loading to HockeyApp servers now ...

- Xeno Counter-Attacks limited to a single attack
- Xeno spawning rate scaled by difficulty setting
- Xeno spawning slower on Brutal and below
- Maximum Attributes/Skills are 16
- Xeno Counter-Attacks limited to a single target
- OW range is limited by weapon range
- Templar Auto-Counter can Counter a Counter Attack
- Fixed crashes when equipping certain types of gear and then looking at effects list
- Fixed text format for Sentry Turret Talent
- Fixed text format for Engineer's Repair Talent
- Fixed text format for Engineer's Heat Sink Talent
- Fixed balance issues with Cutter Fist / Cutter Gauntlet
- Fixed Honing Talent giving Melee bonuses
- EQ screen clearly lists which type of War Gear you can assign to either slot.
- Improved ordering of War Gear by Gear Level.
- Improved EQ UI, reduced text overlaps.

* Available on Android
* Available on Win32
* Available on iOS
* Available on Mac OS X

[fallen]

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback! For P2, there are now 13 levels you can now play, so our updates will focus on fixes, features, improvements during this phase.

[anvil]

Perfect timing. I just had a game crash on P2: ver0.0.8. Lookingcforward to the new release!

[Cory Trese]

Jun 6, 2015 13:20:09 GMT -5 anvil said:

Perfect timing. I just had a game crash on P2: ver0.0.8. Lookingcforward to the new release!

Minor little Android bug with Samsung devices. Added a work around for v0.0.10

That crash will happen on your device, maybe happen 1 in about 1,300 turns. Sorry about that, fixed for next.

[slayernz]

Little concerned about: Maximum Attributes/Skills are 16

I played TA so much that I got skills waaay up and it makes for a very fun and enjoyable game, knowing you have a squad of ultimate bad-asses.
Maaaaaaaybe you have no maximum for a special skill - eg soldiers = gunnery, scouts = stealth, hydra = stupidity ...

[Cory Trese]

Jun 6, 2015 22:24:54 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Little concerned about: Maximum Attributes/Skills are 16

I played TA so much that I got skills waaay up and it makes for a very fun and enjoyable game, knowing you have a squad of ultimate bad-asses.
Maaaaaaaybe you have no maximum for a special skill - eg soldiers = gunnery, scouts = stealth, hydra = stupidity ...

You will have a squad of ultimate bad-asses. You just won't need to define them by saying "this Templar has 1000 Dodge" but instead you will think of them like builds -- this Templar has max Gunnery, splits points between Grenades and Evasion 50/50 otherwise.

Short answer about removing maximums: Nope! Enough variety in value in the skills that a cap works and makes great sense. You will want to spend those points across the set.

If we did say no caps, that means very different advancement curves. Of course, we looked at it both ways and making the skills interlinked, interdependent and deeply balanced across combat means that we have both a really cool set of rules AND an absolute mandatory requirement for caps.

We need caps to let the system work, the math balance and the Templars to advance. Trust me, you want the cap.

Hopefully, that makes sense. A great example is Warrior. If a Berserker can have 26 Warrior, what is the value of a +1 Warrior gear? Is it 1 of 16 parts? 1 of 26?

Key are equations that take multiple factors into consideration. You love those, honestly -- they are the backbone of every successful TB game. Complex equations that artfully blend multiple disparate factors into a single cohesive element.

It's funny ... the ones that work have a very specific visual when you graph them. You can get them to work without maximums, but oh boy does it complicate things for the player. Multiply that complication by a Battleforce and you end up with Templar Assault RPG. That game will still be available after the release of Battleforce!

[slayernz]

Don't get Starfixer involved in graphing all of the different skill advancements ... I hear what you're saying though, and I also know that by the time I'd be wanting higher caps would be after hundreds, if not thousands of battles anyway

Gear improvements (via the research tree) provide skills augmentation anyway.

[Cory Trese]

Jun 6, 2015 23:15:26 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Don't get Starfixer involved in graphing all of the different skill advancements ... I hear what you're saying though, and I also know that by the time I'd be wanting higher caps would be after hundreds, if not thousands of battles anyway

Gear improvements (via the research tree) provide skills augmentation anyway.

And grinding out the Research Tree will also be a big part of the super squad -- not only are they individually amazing warriors but they also have access to the highest level Templar Gear.

Also unlike TA, BF has skills that are more balanced and useful. By making AP and MP fixed, we've actually been able to make the skills and stats so much more balanced and valuable across the game. TA has an odd system where there are hard caps in some places (AP stuff) and unlimited scales in other places. This just means that some things a single +1 doesn't mean much, it is so diluted by the big giant numbers TA rolls.