Fancy fancy. Love the new look of the monsters (shading) and the new parts! Much more lifelike movements! And we finally get to see all of the unique part attacks (including new mechanics I hadn't seen in the game like that psychic-ice-gust-slam thing!) Fun times ahead. Also, that boss monster guarding the entrance to a mini biome/dungeon is new... I wonder if bosses have their own parts to spawn with (or plans to), or if its weird legs and sinister look were simply luck of the draw. And I'm betting the item it dropped could be a part of the quest system in the future? If so, sneaky... The combat system is sure shaping up! I'm not much of the combat expert, but I await a build that allows me to test it. I've at least seen the new weapon spawns but haven't peeked inside the assets yet. The monsters just seem more interesting to me, personally. And I'm sure once more people eventually get their hands on things in Unstable, the combat mechanics will balance themselves out by crowdsource and suggestion! ...or an endless stream of complaints.
Actually, I don't think we saw ALL the part specific attacks. I didn't notice any shading either, but still cool if it was there. One last thing, I think the boss nearby the dungeon was just dumb luck, rather than an actual boss.
Oh, I guess the shading does look about the same as the current build. I read somewhere else where someone said that there were some changes to the way the monsters were shaded. I guess with all of the shiny new sprites all over the place, it's easy to get confused... And I didn't mean ALL of the attacks, just some. And it's too bad about the boss, but it's something to consider. If there are devolved versions of monsters for "babies" and then the regular kind, maybe there should be a "berserk" or "boss" group too! If you think about the unique monsters, some have this type of visual heirarchy. There's Penguins, then Penguin Soldiers, then the Penguin UFO (which may be stretching things), but there's also Po, then Po Golem as well as Poptop, then the gigantic kind featured on one of the posts. This could also affect the combat system allowing for tiered attack groups (like a small antimatter ball for a basic attack, a larger antimatter ball for a regular attack, and a large ball that bursts and causes block damage as a "boss" attack!) This way, randomly-generated boss monsters have their own distinct look and combat techniques! ...or it could all be a mod! But they still have monster types and parts on reserve, so I'm sure version work will be done in the future. This kind of thing would take a while, though, and they've already got their hands full.
Why is monster spawning off by default anyway, wouldn't it make more sense to be testing combat in real conditions?
I believe they're reworking how spawning works. I imagine that they've not got it working quite yet, so we've not yet seen it.
They decided to do a complete overhaul of monster sounds a while ago, tore everything out to start from scratch
Looking really good. Combat looks complex, and dynamic. I was wondering if just a little bit of knockback would improve things. I know an important part of the new combat system was eliminating knockback, and I think that change is working great. I think the smallest amount, almost like a shudder, on the object reviving the hits would make the hits look like they are connecting. Just thought it was worth a mention. DFTBA
Well the link Tiy provided isn't a live link. Its a recording of the stream. Or were you interested more in asking questions during the stream?
I'm with Scottnov's previous comment on having a variety of monster behaviors to compliment this MUCH beefier combat system. Something beyond the one-passive-two-aggros-and-a-boss per world would be worth waiting for too. Definitely dig the wider variety of enemy attacks & directional attacks w/ 2-handers though!
Yeah, currently, monsters just look different currently. Maybe there should be a "monster update", which is good because puns and also to diverse monsters and pets. This would probably include monsters interacting with the environment, making nests (if they aren't going to implement that in the upcoming update), making pets evolve and have a better AI, ect. I came up with some new monster behaviors: 1: Monsters that attack when you attack one of their kind. 2: Monsters that attack when you attack ANY creature. 3: Monsters that are curious, and will inspect and hang around objects the player has made. 4: Monsters that will defend the player and any other creature that is being attacked. 5: Monsters that will eat your crops and then: A: Run away if they see you. B: Only run away if they have finished all the crops they can find. C: Will attack you when they see you. 6: Monsters that learn from the player. They can learn to open doors, use switches, dig, harvest crops, learn how to block shots, and parry/block melee attacks. These monsters are rare, and can be hostile, passive, or any of the other behaviors I've mentioned before. 7: Monsters that "scan" your gear, and decide to fight, flee, or stay in place. 8: Monsters that like to hoard things. They will pick up anything you drop, and will sometimes collect things from non-player made chests and bring them back to their hoard. These monsters spawn with a hoard which is a small cave. There is a storage container that looks like a pile of junk, where they bring hoarded things. If you steal something from this they will attack.
All of these ideas are made of Win, and none of them are totally out of the question as far as game design goes... except maybe number 6. That would be challenging and maybe not worth it.
I'd assume number 6 would be on high-threat planets. Like I said before, they would be rare, and could be passive, and have to see the player do it a few times. Thanks for the positive feedback! It really makes me happy.
I'd be down for even a third of this list, Scottnov! From the latest dev blog, it looks like monster generation will be more varied, which I'm happy to see. More varieties of passives and neutrals would be fun to have as well -- a monster that's easy to farm for meats (and more than just steak, maybe?), and/or another that just makes itself a nuisance instead of an outright threat. ... ...yes, even for flying mobs too.
well now that sword parries and shields are going to have an "energy bar" i'm going to miss using shields like a riot shield to deflect bullets from gunmen like Captain America...Good times, good times. Still though, the new combat system is definitely going to make combat a lot harder, and being a hardcore gamer: "harder is better"
