Good job and thanks! My favorite of the Ep2 levels definitely ended up being Void - it's unpredictable, it's a looker in terms of visual overhaul and it's more atmosphere-driven than usual (while lacking in the fun department for the most part).
Manitou kinda immediately looked old and dated but the interconnectivity between areas and the unexpected mood shifts carry it. Elohim is Elohim.
Semfry wrote:The boss in Manitou seemed a bit odd because it was confined to such a small room and frequently got stuck without getting through the door, so you could just nuke it from outside that room.
Technically yeah, it's intended. I was afraid he was too strong and if he'd chase you he'd be too annoying. Also, it makes kinda sense that he would remain in the command room and do the imperative thing of not letting anyone near the big control panel.
Semfry wrote:I also liked how the "dark" side texturing seemed to be like a peek into what Dead Cell could have been.
Aww yeah, I was almost getting rid of HourKraden in favor of richrig but there were very few available textures and it didn't work. The HourKraden idea came from Fallout 3/NV's vaults design.
Semfry wrote:As the end of the episode the last map felt a bit anti-climatic; you get the cool reveal but then the actual boss is really easy, given the creature was supposed to be a shape-shifter I was expecting it to come back in a more dangerous form or something, but it just died.
Besides the big natural force there showing itself, the map is nothing more than a transition and an "escape" level of sorts. Elohim is the true mid-way climax, both gameplay-wise and also story-wise; when the next levels are out, you'll eventually notice no more Bane bodies (as well as no more "unknown logs") after Elohim. You as the player is the first iteration to get out of Elohim alive. Most will be explained in the final few maps.
Semfry wrote:Also I feel like how the Translocator works on the "dark" enemies should be how it works for Translocator immune enemies in general; just having it bounce off with an effect feels fairer than getting insta-gibbed. The broken translocator also led to issues as I broke it during the shrine boss fight and then had to cheat to reach certain parts for a bit (it did come back after a while, and I'm not sure if that's a time thing or something else).
It's more of an issue of how the xloc disc easily breaks. It only bounces, never break, if the disc bumps on enemies. Splash damage however can easily break discs which is why you never see something like this happening with Shadows as they have melee attacks only (those cannot break the discs). As far as G59 goes, translocator is mostly used for platforming/movement/retreating purposes.
Using the xloc against Berith isn't really necessary, besides putting a disc behind those large pillars for a quick retreat; a good strat would be luring the boss inside the trap rooms, and going all rambo with the PP's tertiary fire on him as you run outside. You'll likely lose health (or the UltraBelt shield charge, which doesn't go down easily unless you literally stand in the line of fire of the boss for many seconds) as you hit the boss when you go out of the trap room due to the splash damage (and make sure the boss stays between those opposite pairs of "fountains"). On the other side, the PP's tertiary fire does stun him in its place for 3 seconds or so after every stun orb, which makes it easy to set up the trap.
General news here - of course, due to Xeops, I haven't done any progress on G59 since Ep2 release. Going fast here isn't a necessity since the number of people playing G59 is small - maybe some might want to wait for the full thing but I always recommend to immediately play what's out. I want to get back on track this May.
As many should know the Magatsu section is next but I did never hide the fact of how much of a stinker that group of maps has always been compared to anything else. Great concept, bland execution, visuals being either very fresh/bizzarre (the outdoor) and downright ugly (indoor).
Since I'm having the freedom of changing the story a bit, I had this idea: throw to the dumpster the old three maps and replacing them with one huge and completely new map; something that makes a big impact without overextending instead of having three levels under the same theme that may be fillery as a whole (I'm trying to have every core G59 map to be worth its own, i.e. relevant and distinct). Making one new map will also take overall less time than revamping three of them, as I'm not brought down by the original geometry of the levels, especially in the light that these maps caused me to halt G59's development for years due to lack of ideas. I'm not going to repeat the same mistakes again.
Lastly yeah this would also get rid of the anomaly of the Magatsu story/location phase lasting three levels instead of everything else in G59 that's encapsulated in single defining levels. Big plus to consistency.