Topic: Demigod Thread

[Quemaqua]

I feel so bad for Stardock.  It isn't often that the woes of a developer or publisher really matter to me, but I feel actively  bad for these guys.  Last night they release an update they'd been working on for two days.  It was totally stable, had a new queuing system that was supposed to fix major issues, and for them things were fast, working well, and this was the update everyone was going to love.  They released it to the public, and it totally bombed.  More problems for people than before, more slowness, fewer people getting into games.  Brad was in chat and you could tell the guy was either about to break down and cry, or rip his PC from his desk and toss it out a window.  I know it's even worse for him because there's nothing he can do.  He's the man in charge, and he's got a lot of coding experience, but he isn't a network dude, and these are all network problems.  So all he can do is try to keep up office and customer morale, and do his best keeping everyone abreast of the happenings.

Mostly, I wouldn't care about a publisher having issues of this sort.  Here, however, I feel terrible about it.  Not only because these guys have a great product that's suffering due to issues, but because they really want it to do well and they want their customers to be happy.  Not even just from a business standpoint.  I've talked to a fair number of SD people over the years, and quite a bit since Demigod's chat is IRC-based and I can login from mIRC outside the game, and they're just average people who enjoy doing what they do.  No egos, no bullshit... just nice people.  And from Brad you always get this sense that he's frustrated not only as this product isn't living up to expectations, but because he hates letting people down.  He's very honest about his feelings a lot of the time, and he really vented to people last night as he was testing and a bunch of people were trying to join his games and they were gathering data about what was wrong.  And it was just fucking heartbreaking.

My heart goes out to all of them.  They're good folks, and I hate to see them getting screwed this way.  It seems plainly apparent that no matter how much they test at their own offices and try to simulate the real world, it's not working.  They really need to find another method or they're just never going to get the data they need before releasing an update to the community at large.

EDIT - See here for a related update from Brad.

[Pugnate]

Shit.

I guess they are really regretting that P2P system.

[idolminds]

Woo!

Despite the problems, Demigod was #3 on the NPD sales chart, bested only by WoW and Sims 2. Plus, thats only counting retail sales. Stardock says the majority of the sales were digital, so they did damn well so far.

[MysterD]

Woo!

Despite the problems, Demigod was #3 on the NPD sales chart, bested only by WoW and Sims 2. Plus, thats only counting retail sales. Stardock says the majority of the sales were digital, so they did damn well so far.

#3 on the NPD AND they did lot more of digital sales = sounds great to me.

I'm curious how many copies they sold digitally (through Impulse).

[idolminds]

For those that don't have the game yet...just hold on a little longer. According to this post, Stardock is going to start ramping advertising up, holding tournaments, release the demo, and...

Seventh, all people who have bought Demigod at retail or direct up May 10th (and didn't return the game obviously) will be getting a coupon that will let them purchase a second copy of Demigod for 50% off for a limited time as a way for us to show appreciation for this community that has put their faith and trust in us.

So Que and I will be getting 50% off coupons (as well as everyone else that bought it).

[Xessive]

That is consumer trust. This is a company that appreciates and respects their loyal customers; the kind of company I want to support. I'm picking up Demigod as soon as it arrives in stores here.

[MysterD]

That's really awesome.

They really want to support their game, their gamers / consumers, and obviously get more people to get this game.

[Pugnate]

Jeeze it is just marketing. It is like Valve allowing buyers of their month old game to buy a second copy at 50% off for a limited time. That way you just get better word of mouth etc. Valve had a deal where if you buy 3 copies of L4D, you get a 4th at a huge discount. Valve didn't do that out of the goodness of their heart. It was just good business.

And keep in mind that the game has been out for 20 days now, and the net code is still apparently not at par. On each of the podcasts I listened to this weekend, the guys were still talking about it taking 20 minutes on average to get a proper game going.

Though the IGN and PCG podcasts did say that it was worth the wait and frustration, but yea.

Woo!

Despite the problems, Demigod was #3 on the NPD sales chart, bested only by WoW and Sims 2. Plus, thats only counting retail sales. Stardock says the majority of the sales were digital, so they did damn well so far.

Keep in mind that titles that debut ahead of those two franchises still don't end up breaking a million. It isn't like WoW and the Sims 2 are going ganbusters every week. They are doing well, and going steady, but at the very least a game that was a success at retail should have easily gone past those two titles during its first week -- like the many number of AAA titles of the past years.

The fact is that Lich King can't be selling more than 15-20K a week -- considering how titles that even sell 80,000 in their first month debut ahead of WoW -- which is why most anticipated titles debut ahead of both WoW and Sims. Hell, UT3 sold 33,000 in its first month, was considered a massive failure, and debuted right behind WoW and Sims.

BTW, I am not trying to rip on the game or anything, but just making a point. Like you said, the game is doing well download wise, so hopefully that means that it is doing well.

Anyway, I am super interested in this, and will pick it up when it gets to be a smoother experience. I just have enough tension in my life as it is without having to wait around for a Demigod game to start.

The other issue is that Europe and Asia apparently have different net configs or something than North America -- which is something Stardock didn't anticipate, and are having a whole blast of different issues that are resulting in even more complications.

Though to be honest, I am more likely to play this on LAN than anything else... so... maybe I should get this now.

[idolminds]

You're right, the sales of any game tends to spike when it releases. It will be interesting to see how it does in the next month. If they get the netcode worked out finally will people still be interested? The game is damn fun...if they get the demo out there for people to try hopefully sales can stay strong.

About the coupon...yeah, its marketing. But I think Stardock is really trying to make it up for the issues people have had to put up with so far. Later on in that thread, Frogboy states:

I should also say, that the coupons to Demigod users are really just the start of Stardock goodies.  Without giving away too much, we are talking to publishers about doing specials for Demigod players on Impulse.  I.e. early adopters of Demigod will get various coupons off of anything on Impulse as well but I can't be specific yet because we only started talking to publishers on Friday (We already have 1 BIG publisher lined up).

My opinion is that Stardock's reputation in the industry absolutely must be something people can trust in. Therefore, we MUST make up the early launch issues with Demigod up to our customers.

[MysterD]

I trust Stardock more so than Valve.

[Quemaqua]

Absolutely.  Of course it's marketing and business, but Brad runs the kind of business I like to support, and he honestly gives a shit about people.  He wants your business, but he wants that to mean something.  And from what I gather from the other people I've talked to who work at Stardock, a lot of them are like that.

[Quemaqua]

Loving this game still.  Idol, Pyro and I got into a match tonight, and it was so fun.  I had a blast with idol all the times we've played, but it was even more fun having a third guy.  It's cool because you know that unique feeling when you work together with someone on the same team in an RTS, and you manage to execute a cool strategy and help each other accomplish something?  It's like that all the time in this game.  When I see that I was able to cast a shield spell on Pyro, saving him from death, I get that feeling, and when he healed me and gave me just enough juice to follow up on a guy idol had mostly killed, and finish him off... there again.  RTS games are usually more about opposing your friends and competing, but this has a much more cooperative feel, or at least is more conducive to that then a lot of other RTS type games.

Anyway, I still heartily recommend this game to anybody that hasn't picked it up yet.  There are still a few kinks to be ironed out (mostly the stuff they couldn't really fix because everyone was working on the infrastructure), but it's just so... fun.  Few multiplayer games I've played lately have given me that same sense of just plain being fun and exhilarating, and this one doesn't seem to get old.  The feeling of power is fairly addictive, and all the different powers the characters have feel very punchy and potent.

So yeah, if you haven't seriously considered it yet, you should!  Come play with us!

[MysterD]

"Frogboy" Brad Wardell talks about Version 1.1 Release Candidate that he has in his hands from GPG.

Version 1.1

I have in my hands a release candidate from Gas Powered Games for v1.1.

Here are a few things we are looking for in v1.1

    * Team concede.  If it looks like you’re going to lose, your team and vote to concede and end the game so you can go to the next.
    * Speed debuffs have a minimum move speed now.
    * Better chat handling for better visibility
    * When you sell a minion idol, existing units are destroyed.
    * Updated computer AI
    * Random Demigod option
    * Bunch of other tweaks, fixes, enhancements.

High on our list is the handling of replays.

The demo version of Demigod is also in our hands based on this same code.  So over the next few days we’ll be going over this.

[sirean_syan]

It's a little late for anyone who might want it, but I thought it might be fun to put this up since there never seemed to be any decent pictures of what the mini that came with the collectors edition looked like. I'll have to paint him up before too long.

[Quemaqua]

Damn, that's pretty nice.  Stop making me wish that I'd gotten the CE.

[idolminds]

Version 1.1 should release tomorrow!

The full highlights will be released tomorrow but here are a few things:

Team conceding will be in. Random demigod option is in. Updated AI is in. Reduced experience and gold from killing priests and angels is in. Heart of life has been nerfed. Tighter integration with the new online system is in for custom games.

[MysterD]

Thanks for the news, Idol!

[Quemaqua]

Kick. Ass.

[idolminds]

Its on, bitches!

Demigod v1.10 (1.10.111 on Impulse)
--------------------------------

- Activated Concede mechanism
- Speed debuffs now have a default minimum move speed based on base move speed * 0.66
- Chat window art fixes, improvement to background for visibility.
- When selling an idol we destroy all units created by that idol.
- Fixed a bug where minions that have engaged a specified target would lose their target if target moved out of range.
- AI
- Flag capture checks
- Added task ticks
- Tightened purchasing priorities
- Removal of spammy achievement warnings
- Fix bug where hitting F10 in the main menu would show a broken dialog box.
- Fixes to healing crystal textures.
- Fixed a mismatch when replacing player in matchmaking.
- Lobby autoLaunch code now checks to see that remote players were connected to each other before launching game.
- Edited display error for Regulus Achievement.
- Increased price of Heart of life, doubled cooldown, made it an artifact, and increased the overall effect.
- Increased the power of Hex Scroll
- Reward for game completion upped from 10 to 40, to reward players for finishing the game, win or lose.
- Reduced experience and gold reward from killing priests and angels, to offset the benefit the opposing team sees from a citadel upgrade in those types.
- Improved Angel anti-Demigod focus.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome awesome awesome!  Is this the one that was supposed to reduce bandwidth usage also?

How long will it take you to get the update, idol?  We totally need to play soon.  You, me, Sy, and Pyro.  A big full on 4v4.

[MysterD]

I feel so damn left out...

[Quemaqua]

Did you even get the game?

[MysterD]

Did you even get the game?

YES!!!

Idol gave me one of those 50% off coupons, back when Stardock dropped them out to early owners.

EDIT:
Que, you even gave me advice on how to play, when I was first learning!

[Quemaqua]

Oh.  Well I dunno', I make a lot of posts.  Have you been playing it much?

[MysterD]

Oh.  Well I dunno', I make a lot of posts.  Have you been playing it much?

And so do I (at lots of post making)!.

Naw, not much, lately on playing Demigod -- you guys would probably hand my ass back to me no problem-o.

I should practice.

[idolminds]

On the road to 1.2

Brad mentions a cool new feature in 1.1, you can "ping" the map with P to alert the AI to move there. Which they will take into consideration, and may not listen.

Version 1.2 might have a bunch of awesome modding stuff added. Doesn't specifically say what can be modded, but the mods will be uploaded and checked by GPG/Stardock and simply become available for everyone. Swanky.

They also want to know about what official things people want to see in 1.2, so you can leave your comments there.

And they also have this page that shows the current Demigod activity. One of the "problems" with the game is you dont get a feeling for its popularity. Games on the server list fill and then start, which takes them off the server list. You only ever see a handful of games, so its hard to see just how many people are playing. People stop booting the game when "there are only ever 5 servers." At the time of this post there are over 80 games running and 3000 players online.

[idolminds]

End of July report

They are getting the demo finished up, hopefully that comes out soon. There will be a post 1.1 update that fixes some stuff and they are pushing on for 1.2 with modding support and new Demigods, hopefully all this in time for PAX.

For version 1.2 itself our list is:

    * Replays (managed)
    * Rematches
    * Additional items & balancing
    * New Demigod #1 (may be released separately)
    * New Demigod #2 (may be released separately)
    * Squelch (silence users in game) /squelch frogboy (right from SupCom)
    * Option to turn off Arena background
    * Various Bug fixes
    * More AI improvements (if anyone in the community wants to make LUA suggestions I’ll forward them on)
    * New AI options  (on death)
          o 1. Gold/ XP: High (= to what it is today)
          o 2. Gold/ XP: Normal (= 50% what killing a human player would be worth) [default]
          o 3. Gold/ XP: Low (=25% of what killing a human player would be worth)
    * New AI option:
          o 1. Hitpoints: Very High (2X what they are today)
          o 2. Hitpoints: High (1.5 what they are today) [Default]
          o 3. Hitpoints: Normal (1.0 what they are today)
          o 4. Hitpoints: Low (0.75 what they are today)
    * Modding Support:
          o 1. Quickie SDK that explains how to make maps
          o 2. Quickie SDK that explains how to make demigods
          o 3. Quickie SDK that explains how to make items
    * New Option: Use Mods (allows mods to be used in single player)
    * Hosts would select which mods to use.
    * We would begin including mods submitted in updated builds.
    * If a player does not have a mod, then it’s not used.
    * More robust Pantheon and Skirmish handling (slot time to work with us to make this system work better).
    * Connection Info would display a player’s rank/experience to better balance custom games

Some interesting things in there. Turning off the background would help people improve framerate if they need to (or just dont want to be distracted). The AI Gold/XP/Health adjustments are probably to even out when a player leaves the game. Players can kill the AI replacement over and over to level, so being able to make them harder to kill or give less benefit for their death (or both) would help a lot.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome.  We need to get some more matches in one of these nights.  I had so much fun playing with you guys.

[MysterD]

That looks like Demigod is gonna have an awesome update.
Looks like I need to start playing that again, eh?

[idolminds]

Demo up on Fileplanet

I'm sure mirrors will be available soon.

UPDATE

Fileshack mirror

Shacknews also lists the contents: The demo features online Internet multiplayer games, the Cataract map and four playable Demigods (Regulus, Rook, Sedna and Lord Erebus.) All of the gameplay modes (Conquest, Dominate, Fortress and Slaughter) in Demigod are available to play in the demo.

[scottws]

Seems a bit late to release a demo.

[idolminds]

Demigod Preview: The Demon Assassin

[Quemaqua]

Damn, that sounds pretty awesome.

We really need to get playing that again.  We never even managed to get Pyro on for a 4-player match, did we?

[MysterD]

More reason for me to get back into Demigod...

[MysterD]

Version 1.19.130 will be released tomorrow.

Demigod v1.19 coming on Tuesday September 22nd
By Frogboy Posted September 18, 2009 13:06:52

A new build of Demigod will be released on Tuesday.  It is the next of the series of updates (aka v1.2) to Demigod to continue to enhance balance, add new features, and fix reported problems.

Here’s a list of what will be in that build:

Demigod v1.19 (1.19.130 on Impulse)
--------------------------------

Added replay support. Replays can be :

    * Chosen from Front end
    * Deleted from Front end
    * Created at end of multiplayer or single player skirmish game
    * Slider added to adjust game speed during replays
    * Skills, inventory, HUD, and citadel upgrades visible while in replay
    * Added version matching for replays, will only display valid replays
    * Added observer as a replay choice to remove shroud

 

Artifact Shop changes:

    * [Enhanced Health Potion] 1000->800g
    * [Enhanced Mana Potion] 1000->600g
    * [Revitalization Elixir] 1000->900g
    * [Supreme Health Potion] 1500->1200g
    * [Supreme Mana Potion] 1500->900g
    * [Supreme Revitalization Elixir] 1500->1350g
    * [Wand of Speed] 1250g->1750g
    * [Warlord's Punisher] 1.5->1s cast time
    * [Twig of Life] 33%->50% heal, 100->150 minion life
    * [Gauntlets of Despair] 100->200 mana drain

 

Additional updates:

    * Multiplayer Skirmish button removed to focus on Custom and Pantheon (single player Skirmish still present)
    * Decreased turn speed on minions
    * Tweaked flight variables for angels to increase hit frequency, also dropped damage to compensate.
    * Significant pathing improvements for minions and angels especially, but reinforcements in general.
    * Adjusted long distance repulsion
    * Minions ignore 50% of the repulsion from buildings and land units.
    * Blueprint loading enabled only when corresponding mod has been enabled.
    * Fixed unable to join dialog/tooltip.
    * Fix for active cooldowns adjusting when a cooldown buff/debuff fades.
    * Fixes for potential threading crashes.
    * Fixed the Valor Flag buff/debuff bug.
    * Fixed the underlying system supporting Ring of Might, Hex Scroll, Horn of Battle. Those items reactivated.
    * Login screen now sets password field to blank after logging in.
    * Prepend timestamp on error logging
    * Fix for active cooldowns adjusting when a cooldown fades.
    * Mod-triggered desynch handling

We expect to release another v1.19 update the following Tuesday which will add player stats in the lobby connection dialog where players can view player data and view any notes they may have made on that player along with possibly more balance updates.

Other previously discussed features and additions (2 more Demigods, modding, additional balance updates, etc. are still in internal beta).

EDIT - Sept 22, 2009:
Patch 1.19 released.

[idolminds]

New Demigods soon!

The two new Demigods are getting close finally. And we’re very excited to start playing with them.  Since we’re going to want to do some “play testing” to nail down the balance before they end up being foisted out on everyone, we’ll be releasing an update to Demigod in the next couple of weeks that will allow us to add these new ones to a person’s Demigod account.  They’ll be able to play it online in regular games with others and we’ll see how they work out.  As we nail down balance and such we’ll expand out access to it until everyone who has Demigod can access it.

Pretty cool.

[MysterD]

Awesome news, Idol.

I wonder if Stardock and GPG will re-release Demigod with some of this extra content they've been releasing for free here and there, sometime down the line with some sort of Gold Edition or something.

[MysterD]

Impulse weekend deal.
Demigod is $14.99 for digital download only.

Demigod is $19.99 for digital download + retail box.
There is an additional shipping cost (which you'll have to let the site calculate).

[idolminds]

1.20 update is live:

Demigod v1.20 (1.20.143 on Impulse)
--------------------------------

- Added host options to manually control experience and gold rewards given for killing AI players. Default amount reduced slightly.
- Added mod manager (everyone must have the same mods extracted to \bindata\mods folder).
- Added options to enable additional Demigods as the update rolls out
- Fixes a serious desync that could potentially resolve a number of problem cases in MP.
- Fixed TB’s ability to attack while moving in Fire Mode.
- Additional optimizations for MP on "laggy" connections. Please note that ping isn't
a measure of whether your machine or other machines on your network are taking bandwidth.

Citadel Upgrades
- Graveyard Citadel Upgrade: Increased bonus from 10/20/40% to 15/30/50%

Favor Items
- Samm-El's Cloak: Buffed cap from 25% to 15%
- Dark Crimson Vial: Reduced cast time from 2 to 1 seconds
- Staff of the Warmage: Increased mana from 700 to 800
- Magical Coin Pouch: Buffed cost reduction from 10% to 15%
- Horn of Battle: Increased health regen from 10 to 25

Items
- Hex Scroll: Reduced cost from 500 to 250
- Capture Lock: Increased cast time from 1 to 2 seconds
- Duelist Cuirass: Reduced cost from 3000 to 2500. Crit chance increased from 5 to 10%.
- Gladiator Gloves: Reduced cost from 750 to 450
- Theurgist's Cap: Reduced cost from 3000 to 2000
- Hungarling's Crown: Reduced cost from 6500 to 5500
- Ironwalkers: Reduced cost from 3750 to 2750
- Desperate Treads: Reduced cost from 5000 to 4000
- Gauntlet's of Despair: Increased mana drain from 200 to 300
- Doomspite Grips: Increased weapon damage from 30 to 40
- Forest Band: Increased minion armor from 200 to 300
- Warlord's Punisher: Unchanged
- Ring of the Ancients: Reduced cost from 3500 to 2500
- Parasite Egg: Reduced cost from 4000 to 3000
- Horn of Battle: Changed to give minions 50 health for 20 seconds.

Game Mechanics
- Dodge Cap increased from 30% to 40%
- Interrupts will no longer overwrite stuns
- Crit damage calculations fixes
- Item cost modifiers will now affect citidel upgrades properly. Previously, a citidel upgrade would charge a player the modified cost, but would not allow you to buy it until you had the full cost gold available.
- Improved shamblers to be a bit more capable of pursuit.
- Heroes will re-engage their attack target after performing an ability
- Fix for all of TB's Rings of Fire going away after the oldest ones time out.
- Fixes for demigods chasing after old targets at inappropriate times.
- Dark Valor flag now included in Fortress mode on Zikurat
- Added support for ignoring players in-game. Supported commands: /ignore /squelch

Queen of Thorns
- Summon Shambler: Summon Shambler now increases health and damage of Shamblers as you gain new ranks. The values are 5/10/15 damage and 125/250/375 health.
- Entourage: Shamber buff decreased to compensate for Summon Shambler's boost. Damage reduced from 10/20/30 to 6/12/18 damage and 250/500/750 health to 165/330/495.

[MysterD]

Thanks, Idol - you rock!