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Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: idolminds on Monday, April 06, 2009, 10:39:53 AM
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Announcement (http://www.impulsedriven.com/news/1216_Rising_to_the_Pantheon_Demigod_Goes_Gold)
PLYMOUTH, MI (APRIL 6, 2009) - Stardock (www.stardock.com) announced today that the highly anticipated real-time action strategy PC game, Demigod, has gone gold. Demigod is set to hit store shelves in North America on April 14 and will also be available for download on Stardock's digital distribution platform Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com). Pre-orders are now available on Impulse for both the standard edition ($39.95) and the collector's edition ($49.95.)
Developed by renowned gaming studio Gas Powered Games, Demigod delivers an epic game experience by combining elements of its acclaimed strategy game Supreme Commander and its award-winning Dungeon Siege role-playing game series.
In Demigod, a god has fallen, leaving an opening in the Pantheon. Players take control of a Demigod, waging war in spectacular arenas against others to ascend to godhood.
Each battle takes place in an arena, where players earn gold and experience in battle which can then be used to acquire new abilities, learn magical spells, purchase better equipment and improve their faction's Citadel with the goal to lay waste to the opposing faction.
Demigod makes use of Stardock's Impulse Reactor which provides intelligent match-making, on-line tournaments, player skill ratings, and much more.
"We are extremely happy with how Demigod has turned out," said Stardock's CEO and president Brad Wardell. "Demigod is the kind of game that we think players will be playing years from now. It has a really fun single-player tournament, and it has online features that let both casual and competitive players create their own fun and unique gaming experiences."
"We're proud of what the Demigod team has accomplished," said Chris Taylor, CEO of Gas Powered Games. "They've created an original world and setting, with spectacular art direction and characters, and have matched it with unique gameplay that seamlessly mixes elements from multiple genres."
While most PC games are released at $49.95 or more, Demigod has been priced at only $39.95 due largely to Stardock and GPG's confidence that Demigod is a game that will appeal to a very broad set of PC gamers.
For further details about Demigod, please visit www.demigodthegame.com.
See the box contents here (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/345335/Demigod_Inside_the_box). Collectors edition contains: Minature Rook figure (looks like an unpainted mini similar to a Warhammer figure. Should be cool to see people paint them.), CD soundtrack, and a Demigod Desktop. I guess thats like the Sins of a Solar Empire Windowblinds skin.
I wasn't planning on the collectors edition but the Rook looks cool.
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*yawn*
I just don't think Taylor has it in him to make a great game. Let's see.
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I think enough other awesome people are helping with this project that even Taylor can't fuck it up. Only time will tell, but I'm still pretty excited about it.
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Oh crap. Of course they use the one thing I can't resist.
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While most PC games are released at $49.95 or more, Demigod has been priced at only $39.95 due largely to Stardock and GPG's confidence that Demigod is a game that will appeal to a very broad set of PC gamers.
I just find that entire line so hilarious!
As for the game, let's see. I've been disappointed enough times by Taylor's games, and his aloofness, that I almost want this to be bad. Kinda like I was somewhat pleased when HG:L turned out to be a disappointment.
I know, I am bad.
Obviously if the game rocks, I will buy it straight away. ;)
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Demigod released a little early (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/346061/Demigod_is_early).
Gamestop were apparently dicks and broke street date. What I read was GS asked Stardock if they could sell the game early, and SD said no. GS then cut 2/3rds of their order and broke street date anyway. So the SD folks had to work over the holiday since they weren't expecting people to have the game yet. Apparently after finding out GS was selling the game, Best Buy started as well.
Anyway if you can find a retail copy early, go for it. It'll be available tomorrow either way. If you were a beta tester or pre-ordered the game from Impulse, its now available for download.
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Wow that's bullshit. Imagine being dragged from the holiday for that. I read that little link and suddenly want to buy the game.
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Wow...I wonder if Stardock and Gas Powered will sue them.
They can, right?
Will GameStop get fined for breaking street date WITHOUT permission?
Will Best Buy...?
EDIT:
You know what would be funny?
If nobody buys any copies IN STORE from BB and GS, and instead they just buy it directly from Stardock....
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This sort of thing happens very often, and lawsuits never seem to happen.
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I always wondered why that is. Legal fees aren't worth it for whatever the recommended damages would be? I dunno'.
I really want this. I'm not a huge fan of Gas Powered Games, but I'm a pretty huge fan of Stardock, and I really like everything I've seen on this so far. I just don't know if I have the money this month. But as soon as I have some spare cash, they're getting my support.
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Wardell speaks:
Just a quick update. So here's the situation:
Gamestop released Demigod last week instead of waiting for the street date which is tomorrow).
We had only kept up a single Demigod server for the Easter holidays because the only people who would be playing would be a few partners, reviewers, etc. So no biggie.
But the early retail release not only resulted in thousands of customers we weren't expecting but also tens of thousands of pirates (there's no copy protection or DRM whatsoever on the retail DVD). So that 1 server has become horrifically bogged down.
So what we've been doing tonight is setting up the day 0 servers but doing something a little extra: We're also updating the game to make use of the new servers exclusively so that people with the older version (the pirates) will be left with the old version and customers will update to the new version (the download will be like 5 megs or so via Impulse).
And, because we're updating it, we're rolling in some new features based on feedback from reviewers (like how the friends stuff works and a connectivity status dialog that shows who's connecting to your game even from within the lobby of a custom game).
So all that should be up and ready in the next hour or so. Then we'll be all ready for some Demigod on Demigod action! (well not me, I'm going to bed). :)
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Wardock ftw.
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Idol, where's the link to where Wardell said this?
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Reply #5
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Right here (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=45747&page=10)
Also, reviews!
Neoseeker (http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Games/Reviews/Demigod_review): 10/10
Cheat Code Central (http://cheatcc.com/pc/rev/demigodreview.html): 4.3/5
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Reply #5
It ain't connecting there.
I bet it's b/c Stardock's servers are probably getting slammed as we speak...
EDIT:
Oooh, the Quartertothree forums.
Thanks for said link, Idol.
EDIT #2:
I found this interesting answer from Wardell on the forums Idol linked us to.
Any word on whether Gamestop broke the release date out of incompetence or greed? I'm just curious.
Clever idea to stop the pirates. Are you able to track server hits to try to get a count on who is trying to play with an illegitimate copy?
We can't identify individuals. The game has a "check for updates" call at the menu so we can see how many people are playing. We also know how many copies Gamestop ordered and how many beta testers + pre-orders we had.
Suffice to say there are a lot of warez copies in use right now. So this will be an interesting experiment of the effect of piracy on sales. I still maintain that while piracy is a major issue, one shouldn't treat a pirated copy as a lost sale.
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I really need to get this. Damn it. Stop talking about it, and please don't tell me how awesome it is.
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Can't tell you how awesome it is or isn't.
I don't have it.
After reading CCC's review....no SP Campaign?
Just a SP portion that is just like its MP side?
Did they just pull an Iron-Clad here (i.e. Sins of a Solar Empire)?
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Why is that surprising? It's much more common for games of this type not to have campaigns, I'd think. This is very obviously a competitive, score-driven, "boxing match" sort of game where teams compete. Most games like that that I'm thinking of off the top of my head dispense with single player campaigns and simply allow you to play against AI opponents in the usual match setup.
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Wait...Did SupCom have a SP campaign?
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Yes, but that was more traditional RTS.
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Well, its pretty sweet. I don't have the Day 0 update yet, but I just ran a quick skirmish. I played an Assassin type, the dude with the crossbow vs the General type lady riding a giant tiger. She can heal and stuff, but I went with easy AI since I'm a n00b.
This demigod seemed to work out a bit better for me. I messed with the Rook for just a little bit and died horribly. The crossbow guy is all about range. His Snipe attack gains power the further the arrow travels. You can't totally hang back since your regular "autoshot" doesn't quite have the same range, but you can at least be behind your waves of minions helping them kill and not getting into too much melee yourself. The enemy demigod didn't like that so she chased me down a lot. I would run back by some defensive towers so they would hit her and she'd run off when low on health, then I'd snipe her and finish her off.
It's going to take me a little learning still to figure everything out, such as which of the armor pieces I want for whatever demigod. There are helmets, gloves, boots, breastplates, and rings...and I'm probably forgetting some stuff. And theres like 10 of each. So you can really deck out your dude (though it doesn't show on the model, its strictly a stat boost thing). There are also citadel upgrades that boost your towers, or minions, or other things that aren't directly related to the demigod. Plus knowing when to run back to the home base area and make these purchases/upgrades. Since I was on Easy I think I wasn't getting hurt as much so didn't have much reason to head back there. When I died I'd respawn there and do whatever upgrades I could.
I like this game since it seems almost "laid back" in how you play. Retreating is actually a viable option, and since thats the fastest way to heal (in your base) you'll probably do it often in a harder game. Capturing flags around the maps can give you more mines for gold and a mid-field shop to buy potions and stuff. It also helps to remember that the minions you'll be fighting aren't the real enemy, its the towers. Lots of health, they regen, and its how you proceed. Once a tower is destroyed its gone for good, so you eventually push into the enemy base. The minions won't be able to take down towers by themselves usually so if you get caught up in minion killing you won't get very far.
Anywho, its late and this post probably sucks. Long story short: I'm digging it.
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So I cracked, and so far... this game is bloody awesome.
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What Edition did y'all buy?
Reg?
Collector's?
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Damn.. Now that Que and Idol have picked it up, and MyD will quickly follow, I might just hop on the boat too.
I checked out some videos and I am tempted.
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Damn.. Now that Que and Idol have picked it up, and MyD will quickly follow, I might just hop on the boat too.
I checked out some videos and I am tempted.
I don't know if I'll follow *that* quickly...
Since I kinda really am eyeballing the Collector's Ed and wanting that to drop a little bit.
Yeah, I know...sometimes I can be *really* cheap.
The release of a demo might make up my mind quicker...
That's what made me so sure on Sins; the demo rocked.
Also, I really do wish there was SP campaign here.
When Sins came out, I bought Sins at $25 sometime back and waited for a sale like tyhat b/c there was no SP campaign; just skirmishes.
Even though skirmishes can last you a good while, in that Sins game.
Well, for those interested, on Amazon w/ Free Super Saver Shipping...
Reg Edition is $34.99 on Amazon. (http://www.amazon.com/Demigod-Pc/dp/B001N1C1J8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239831677&sr=8-1)
Collector's Ed is $46.99 (http://www.amazon.com/Demigod-Collectors-Pc/dp/B001Q58OAG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239831677&sr=8-2)
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Waiting on reviews.
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Me too, Pug.
The game only comes with 8 maps...will there be more?
Does the game pack a SDK?
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They plan of releasing more maps. So far there is no SDK, which is a shame. Would be fun to see a bunch of new arenas.
Though the maps are actually 3D models made in Max, so its not a simple matter to create or edit them. Still, game communities are resourceful. Even if it was hard, you'd still see people doing it.
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They plan of releasing more maps. So far there is no SDK, which is a shame. Would be fun to see a bunch of new arenas.
Given what I know about this game since this looks like a game that will be skirmish-fest, this just really looks like this is the kind of game that would really thrive like crazy off a SDK and maps be constantly added by the community and (of course) Gas-Powered.
Though the maps are actually 3D models made in Max, so its not a simple matter to create or edit them. Still, game communities are resourceful. Even if it was hard, you'd still see people doing it.
Let's hope Gas-Powered releases more maps, a SDK gets released, and/or the community decides to be resource enough to get their own maps going.
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I do hope they don't charge for DLC. The game is really stellar, and after several hours with it I can say I'm totally happy. It was exactly what I wanted it to be and what it looked like it would be. Tons of fun. The maps are indeed very pretty and would be hard to do, and I know they plan to do official ones... I'm just really praying for free, or at the very least that they do really cheap packs with a bunch of stuff for little cash.
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Demigod Review Postponed on 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173758)
Delayed because the online play is having troubles. Wardell explains:
The challenge we're running into is that our NAT facilitator servers are getting hammered by the number of requests. That's the most significant issue as it results in users not being able to connect to each other. The solution to this is partly more servers (which we're doing right now) and partly a code update to connect users without using so many resources. We expect to have this largely resolved in the next 24 hours or so.
The other thing we have to do is isolate the warez users off the main server branch so that legitimate customers aren't competing with the 100k+ warez people playing the game for database resources.
The only reason why we haven't had this happen on other games is because we've never had anything like this many users in such a short amount of time. Sins of a Solar Empire was a huge hit but its success came not from an immediate burst of users but rather sustained long term growth which allowed us to keep enhancing the infrastructure as needed with minimal issues for users.
Earlier Que and I got into a game, and it was a blast.
*EDIT*
Gamespot didnt wait. 6.5 (http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/demigod/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review)
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Lame. I know how bad it sucks for something to be broken out of the box, but that seems overly harsh. Lots of games are in worse shape. This one is technically competent from a programming standpoint, at least, and it's much easier to blame a big AAA developer or publisher for something like this than Stardock, who are still more or less a mom n' pop operation. Too, it's one thing to have a company issues lame statements that they're working on this or that and not see much action, but here you've got the CEO in the freaking chat seemingly 24 hours a day addressing concerns and giving updates on what's happening, so you can be sure the problems are going to be rectified before long.
Eh. Whatever, it's just a review score. I just hope the negativity surrounding this doesn't affect sales and such. This is a good game that easily deserves the money they're asking (which really isn't much).
But yeah, idol and I got into a game, and even though dialup ain't supposed to work, we made it all the way to the end of a game and only disconnected literally about 2 seconds before victory (and who knows what the problem actually was). I think a couple days will fix this puppy up fine. And hopefully they'll want to smooth over any ruffled feathers and will offer DLC for free after this!
Far as I'm concerned, Chris Taylor has redeemed himself.
EDIT - You know, I think what's pissing me off more than usual about this is the fact that my experiences with Left 4 Dead were really fucking awful initially, and I didn't see a single review ding it for that. Their server code is totally jacked, and setting up a dedicated server was an absolute fucking nightmare, and to this day it doesn't yet work properly. And this is on old tech where all they really had to do was tweak netcode, not rewrite an engine. And does anyone complain? No. It's an awesome game, no doubt, and lots of fun, but this situation is very similar except Stardock and GPG actually have legitimate reasons for what's going on where Valve have no excuse whatever. Dearth of content... as far as I'm concerned, Left 4 Dead is *still* only half a game, but very few reviews dinged it for that, either. It would have been nice if Demigod shipped with a few extra maps, I'll grant that, which is why I'm really hoping for some free downloads, but it shipped with 8 really well balanced, different-feeling, impressive-looking maps, and the different game modes change the fundamentals of each one pretty substantially.
Eh. Anyway, I'm just trying to turn the tide a little, I guess. I don't think the game deserves to be overlooked, and I'm hoping most of you guys will be willing to check it out despite this.
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From The GameSpot Review, it sounds like VanOrd loves the gameplay, presentation, graphics, atmosphere, and style, but is looking for more so than anything here: content -- especially given the game's price. This sounds like the L4D issue, if you ask me.
Van Ord is looking for a SP Campaign (like many other RTS's/RPG's offer). Well, that's probably even more so true, since there's only just EIGHT maps to play on - fair enough, I say. If the game say had EIGHT MP maps and a fairly lengthy SP campaign (let's say 10 hours or more is normal these days), VanOrd might not be bitching like he did.
I don't blame VanOrd here, but if there's online connection issues with a MP-based game -- yeah, I'd want them to go way away, too. I'm sure many of us here felt that about Left 4 Dead, when we were playing online and suddenly got kicked or we just couldn't connect to any game. It's a damn shame the Demigod game is riddled with these issues -- thanks to GameSpot releasing the game before street date; Stardock not being a super-big operation in the first place to handle this craze of gamers wanting this game (as Que pointed out); the GS early release really caused Stardock to rush to get things up for people who bought the thing early from them and/or had pre-orders; and pirates also deciding to jump into the party to play the game over SD's servers. Stardock really did the best they could, given the disastrous circumstances thrown their way here...
Can we really fault VanOrd for slapping the crap out of the game in his review with all these issues he has with the game? I think really most of his review just goes back to the L4D adage -- for $40-50, where's the content?
If the Demigod game shipped with no SP campaign, but say came equipped w/ say 20+ maps to play in either SP or MP for skirmishes, I doubt VanOrd would be bitching about lack of content and connectivity issues. I mean, if you have that many maps to play with on the SP side, you could really go to town -- even if the MP portion is having connection issues...
EDIT:
EDIT - You know, I think what's pissing me off more than usual about this is the fact that my experiences with Left 4 Dead were really fucking awful initially, and I didn't see a single review ding it for that. Their server code is totally jacked, and setting up a dedicated server was an absolute fucking nightmare, and to this day it doesn't yet work properly. And this is on old tech where all they really had to do was tweak netcode, not rewrite an engine. And does anyone complain? No. It's an awesome game, no doubt, and lots of fun, but this situation is very similar except Stardock and GPG actually have legitimate reasons for what's going on where Valve have no excuse whatever. Dearth of content... as far as I'm concerned, Left 4 Dead is *still* only half a game, but very few reviews dinged it for that, either. It would have been nice if Demigod shipped with a few extra maps, I'll grant that, which is why I'm really hoping for some free downloads, but it shipped with 8 really well balanced, different-feeling, impressive-looking maps, and the different game modes change the fundamentals of each one pretty substantially.
Que, you are absolutely right. L4D did NOT get dinged in reviews for its poor Net Code and absolutely major lack of content. For $40, is L4D really worth its pricetag? Honestly, no -- not enough content there to justify the price.
L4D has a regular style campaign to progress through "episodes" (Duke Nukem 3D style, baby!), which can be played SP or MP -- which is though only 4 hours total, in most likelihood. But, its the damn versus mode that is actually 1/2 of a versus mode -- so, that's another 2 hours here. To see everything, this makes it feel like the game is only now say 6 hours worth of gameplay total now, one time through everything. You can't do ALL the maps on that one, or it'd be 8 hours to see everything once -- well, at least for right now....
As much as I love L4D, thank God it only cost $10 for (my parents for) that one. It was definitely worth that much. I'd say $25 is a fair price of L4D, myself -- if you can get it for that.
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It's still a little more justifiable here than elsewhere. When you see the maps you'll understand why. They're obviously all hand-modeled, where with most games you get a lot of maps that have maybe some modeled terrain and a bunch of prefab stuff put on top of it. So even though they're technically more sparse here (i.e. you don't have miles of bulrushes and trees and whatnot), you get the impression a fair bit of time went into them. Like idol said, they're done in Max and aren't the kind of thing a dev can just slap together an editor for.
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Wardell is chatting with folks in IRC/in-game chat (same thing). New patch will be released tonight, they are working out issues. Then this was interesting:
<@Frogboy> Blitz, yea it looks like there's at least 18,000 purchases out there.
<@Frogboy> about 18,000 different people played yesterday who actually bought the game.
<@Frogboy> And something like 120,000 pirates.
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<@Frogboy> We're going to put it up tonight.
<@Frogboy> I locked the doors from the outside.
<@Frogboy> New NAT fascilitator that is decoupled from the one the pirates are using.
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[00:51] <TorchedGeek> Frogboy, I know you've got alot on your plate right now, but are you/GPG expecting to release an SDK for Demigod in the future?
[00:53] <@Frogboy> I expect there to be modding.
[00:53] <@Frogboy> Depend son sales which influences budget.
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[01:18] <@Frogboy> Okay.
[01:18] <@Frogboy> we're packaging the update.
[01:18] <@Frogboy> it's going to be a bit
[01:19] <@Frogboy> (we have to package a 2.7gb thingie)
[01:19] <@Frogboy> Not sure how long it will take, bandwidth limited.
*In here someone asks if they have to download the whole thing. You don't, but they have to package the whole thing as well at the patch. Patch is only 17MB*
[01:25] <@Frogboy> The NAT fascilitator is no longer tied to any resources that the warez users are using.
[01:26] <@Frogboy> And we now allow hosts to eject players who are not connecting.
[01:26] <@Frogboy> So far, perfect connections.
[01:26] <@Frogboy> Oh and we fixed some crashes.
[01:26] <@Frogboy> Mainly in the join game area.
[01:27] <@Frogboy> And it's faster getting into the game.
[01:27] <@Frogboy> And there shouldn't be any disconnects during game.
[01:29] <@Frogboy> The freezing won't be cmopletely gone wtih this build as it's not a game issue it's a server issue but nat won't be affected anymore.
[01:29] <@Frogboy> i.e. your ability to get into games isn't going to be cmopromised anymroe.
[01:30] <@Frogboy> which is a huge issue.
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Interesting exchange on the Demigod forums regarding the Gamespot review. (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/346810/page/2/#replies)
Let me ask those who think we should get a 2 or whatever this:
The Gamespot review will live on forever. But the problems connecting in multiplayer will likely be gone in another few days. And, I should point out that a lot of the problems people are experiencing are due to having so many more users on day 1 than we had expected.
If we had, for instance, sent out review copies of Demigod say tomorrow, we would likely end up with a very different score.
So I ask you, do you really think that's a fair review?
Yes, I believe it's a fair review. It's accurate on the date we posted it and it's based on the same version of the game that people are paying money for right now. You might not be aware of this, but we actually implemented an "After the Fact" feature that we use to update reviews as games are being improved (or in some cases, finished) after they arrive in stores. If and when Demigod's current problems get fixed, we'll be sure to add an update to the top of the review stating that, thus giving potential buyers an opportunity to make their decision based on info that's as up-to-date as we can make it.
Oh, and @gaping_maw, you're absolutely right, doing this doesn't get us a lot of "clicks" - but we do it anyway.
Justin Calvert, Section Editor, GameSpot Reviews
Ok, let's put some perspective here:
When Sins of a Solar Empire launched (Gamespot score: 9.0), the multiplayer services of the game consisted of a single EXE (Ironclad Online) running from the Startup folder of ONE machine.
However, unlike with Demigod, Sins didn't instantly have 140,000 bumping into it. Instead, it had a few thousand. Over time, as the userbase grew, Ironclad continued to improve it and we were able to provide more infrastructure.
But with Demigod, the game's street date (18 hours ago now) was broken and while only a few thousand legitimate copies got out there, it turned out to be a favorite of pirates resulting in 120,000 (yesterday) connections at its peak.
Visit: http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ and click on View Steam players per game to get a comparison. That means in a 24 hour period, our servers had to deal with more users than all the Counter-Strike servers combined had to deal with. Our system wasn't set up to handle 140,000 users. It was setup to handle a fraction of that.
Now, this isn't something that we can't address. We can slowly eliminate the pirates from using the resources but we have to do updates to do that and we have to make our NAT connector not so dependent on those resources. But it's not something we can do overnight, it may actually take a full 24 hours from the official street date to address.
At the end of the day, your position simply makes the case that it was a mistake to send Gamespot a review copy early. If we had sent out the game on release day via 2 day Fed Ex, you would have gotten it tomorrow and all the connectivity stuff would have been largely contained.
One can only imagine what the fate of Sins of a Solar Empire would have been IF its launch day resulted with tens of thousands of users connecting at once rather than a few hundred at once and the review was a snapshot of that moment.
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Some will probably take this as Stardock fanboyism, but I feel bad for Wardell and more or less agree with him. I understand the frustrations of broken online systems as I've dealt with them before like everyone else, but it seems to me that giving a premature low review score when you're plainly aware that something is going to get fixed is just stupid, because then your review will stand there for all time having been accurate only for a day or two, which actually makes you a shitty journalist. This isn't print, so there's really no excuse for having something that inaccurate go out and sit there. Even if you add a blurb to the top of the thing, that really isn't going to change the tone of the review or the score that your subhuman monkey readers are going to be looking at.
I'd feel differently if it was a big company who failed to properly meet the needs of their expected number of customers, because that's just shoddy. I can't quite take the same view with this. Granted, it would have been nice if they'd had a little more foresight and anticipated what potential problems might be, but hell, I didn't anticipate that level of piracy either. If a company shows as much good faith as Stardock has, and so much dedication to getting things fixed within the shortest timeframe possible, outrage simply doesn't seem like the right sentiment. There are other games that have had great launches but have then been totally neglected when things went south later on as the user base expanded, yet where are the updates to those reviews saying "Guess what? Game's fucked now"?
Eh. I actually like Calvert, but his comments strike me as a cop out. Again, this isn't print, dude, and people don't read your publication as though it is. Don't try to act like throwing a blurb at the top of an obsolete review makes you a hero. All you're really doing in this case is spreading misinformation.
Back at AOG, I rewrote a review of one game that was buggy upon release because the major issues people reported were addressed within a day or so by a really comprehensive patch, and while it was irksome to have problems at release (and these weren't even server-related problems, which are far more justifiable than crash bugs and quest-breakers), they did such a tremendous job of rectifying the problem, it would be a very poor thing to let a review go out where the major strikes against the game were about bugs that were fixed for 99% of the life of the game. Again, I expect that Demigod will be less buggy, more stable, and will host games more reliably in a week or two than L4D has managed nearly 6 months after release. And the updates won't be delivered by a buggy DRM system, they'll be delivered by Impulse, which maxes my connection speeds every time I download anything at all from it.
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If things get fixed and it's significant enough that the original review becomes redundant then Gamespot ought make a "Demigod: Revisited" headline, clearly marked on their homepage too.
EDIT:
I do feel that Gamespot rushed the review. They should have waited a bit and given a complete review.
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Demigod Review Postponed on 1UP (http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173758)
Delayed because the online play is having troubles. Wardell explains: Earlier Que and I got into a game, and it was a blast.
*EDIT*
Gamespot didnt wait. 6.5 (http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/demigod/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review)
Yea that's fucked up. Why the hell didn't those dickheads wait? God, they wait a month to review MMOs... so what the f?
And it seems insane to punish a game for one day of connectivity issues when those issues could be non-existent for the game's lifetime.
Que, you are absolutely right. L4D did NOT get dinged in reviews for its poor Net Code and absolutely major lack of content. For $40, is L4D really worth its pricetag? Honestly, no -- not enough content there to justify the price.
To be fair every review I read of the game mentioned the game's lack of content. But you are right, L4D was hardly penalized in the final score.
<@Frogboy> Blitz, yea it looks like there's at least 18,000 purchases out there.
<@Frogboy> about 18,000 different people played yesterday who actually bought the game.
<@Frogboy> And something like 120,000 pirates
That's pretty shitty.
The Gamespot review will live on forever. But the problems connecting in multiplayer will likely be gone in another few days.
My thoughts exactly. Makes no sense.
Yea I feel pretty sad for Wardell. That kind of level of piracy does suck majorly.
I guess this sorta explains what the "PC GAMING ALLIANCE" meant by trying to stop day 1 piracy.
And while none of this justifies some of the anal practices of EA, the bigger picture is a bit more clear.
Granted, it would have been nice if they'd had a little more foresight and anticipated what potential problems might be, but hell, I didn't anticipate that level of piracy either
Really? I mean if you look at all the major releases of the past few years (Crysis etc etc etc), this is the level of piracy their publishers/developers have been complaining about. Unfortunately, they've been getting mocked for their complaints across the vast majority of gaming forums by "hardcore" gamers.
The only difference between the AAA titles of the past few years, and Demigod is that Demigod has the online stats to prove it, while those other AAA titles were mostly singleplayer and didn't have evidence as concrete.
Anyway, 120 000 pirates on Day 1 has probably left Chris Taylor fuming.
I wonder how long it will take for Stardock to wipe out those illegitimate cd keys.
At the end of the day, your position simply makes the case that it was a mistake to send Gamespot a review copy early. If we had sent out the game on release day via 2 day Fed Ex, you would have gotten it tomorrow and all the connectivity stuff would have been largely contained.
The whole thing is just ridiculous.
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Frankly, I don't understand the piracy related to online activity. Isn't that exactly where piracy can be prevented with a high degree of success? Proper exclusive credentials should be established before any online benefits can happen at all. Am I being naive?
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Yea I agree with you. I think the problem was that gamestop broke the street date, and Stardock were left less prepared.
Guys, the game requires a cdkey to go online, right?
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I think Stardock are tackling the piracy issue in the most elegant way a company can. They're ensuring that only the legitimate players can update and connect to the official servers and not penalizing them at the same time. I really don't care what the reviews say I might pick this up just to show support for Stardock; end of the day it's gonna be a fun a game anyway.
I was just imagining if the servers were an actual place, like an island with ~140,000 residents: 18,000 legitimate homeowners and 120,000 flithy, smelly, scurvy-ridden pirates and sea-whores! AAAArrrRRRRAAaa HA HARR!!! Lots and lots of sea-whores!! ;D
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Well one of the problems was the game, no matter what version, was checking to see if it was up to date at startup. So that alone was pounding the servers pretty hard with that many people making that check.
I'm not sure if/how pirated copies can play online. By now they've moved over to different servers and such so unless they can get the patches, they can't get into the server list. At least the official server list.
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Well one of the problems was the game, no matter what version, was checking to see if it was up to date at startup. So that alone was pounding the servers pretty hard with that many people making that check.
I'm not sure if/how pirated copies can play online. By now they've moved over to different servers and such so unless they can get the patches, they can't get into the server list. At least the official server list.
So, how does Demigod's servers actually figure out who the pirates are? By what version of the game they're running? Some other things too?
Is there like a CD/DVD/Game Key you have to register over Impulse with Demigod (just so they can track how many are using the key)? Does it do game key checks?
And then do they just cut them right off? B/c really, they should cut them right the hell off anyway possible...
PIRACY has got to stop as it is killing gaming -- even though it probably never will unfortunately...
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Yes, I believe it's a fair review. It's accurate on the date we posted it and it's based on the same version of the game that people are paying money for right now. You might not be aware of this, but we actually implemented an "After the Fact" feature that we use to update reviews as games are being improved (or in some cases, finished) after they arrive in stores. If and when Demigod's current problems get fixed, we'll be sure to add an update to the top of the review stating that, thus giving potential buyers an opportunity to make their decision based on info that's as up-to-date as we can make it.
Oh, and @gaping_maw, you're absolutely right, doing this doesn't get us a lot of "clicks" - but we do it anyway.
Justin Calvert, Section Editor, GameSpot Reviews
How often do GameSpot use their "After The Fact" feature?
Do they change the score w/ this feature? Show the old score and the new score?
I mean, hell -- is GameSpot going to re-review Sacred 2, with all of its new extra content that the owners seem to get with every damn patch they release every month or so?
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Update from IRC:
CURRENT STATUS: Servers are being added to the pool. We have brought down the Demigod clusters to add this capacity and to troubleshoot earlier issues. We will let everyone know as soon as they're back up and alive.
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This went up as I was typing:
SERVER STATUS: Servers are down for upgrades. We are expanding capacity. Current ETA is 7pm EDT
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I don't want to sound like a fanboy blindly supporting here, even though thats sort of what it looks like. I mean, I understand Gamespots position. If you went out right now and bought the game, this is what you'd have to deal with. That should be mentioned. But they really knocked the score down for that, and this release had some problems that came out of nowhere (Gamestop selling early, which also gave pirates a head start on slamming servers that weren't set up for release, etc). Plus lots of other games have had launch issues and weren't docked so heavily in their score. The lack of singleplayer is funny since Sins also didnt have a campaign yet that won GOTY at a lot of places.
Just seems like people want this game to fail for some reason. I don't get it...its FUN, even just playing a skirmish against AI. I'm totally happy with my purchase, and thats before they get the MP stable and running smooth or the addition of new maps and Demigods (2 new Demigods are already in the works, apparently).
Ok, enough of that. I'm going to talk about the game.
I just ran a SP match. 3v3, I was Regulus (dude with the crossbow). One tip to learn early on: Even though items are separated into Helms, chest piece, boots, gloves, rings, etc, the slots they go into are generic. You can fill all 5 slots with helms if you wanted. The "armor type" is more to classify what bonuses they give. Helms are mana, chest is armor/health, boots are speed, gloves are weapon damage, and rings are for misc stuff and abilities. So if you need mana, buy a helm or two.
Anyway, I was playing Regulus. Hes pretty cool since he can snipe long distances. The further the bullet travels, the more damage it will do.
His other ability has him sprout wings and cause more damage per regular shot + splash damage to surrounding enemies. Perfect for taking out the enemy reinforcements. Each shot costs mana, though so you eventually run out. That is unless you buy a couple helms that give +11 mana regen and +70% regen and another +35%. These stack, so I was getting some awesome mana regen. In fact, I never ran out and never had to worry about it. Every shot would regen the mana cost before I could fire again. So I was laying waste to the enemy reinforcements and racking up tons of XP.
With all the XP I was able to upgrade a lot of abilities. I eventually got enough range where I could attack towers without them being able to hit me, so it was cake to take them out. I got an ability that "marks" units so if they run away into the fog of war I could still see them. Couple that with a high power snipe, I was taking out enemy Demigods like crazy. They would come in to fight, take AoE damage from my neverending Angelic Fury and my reinforcements, when their health got too low they would run back to base. I'd let them run a little ways then snipe for 500-800 damage, which usually killed them. That gave me tons of gold and XP so I was a powerhouse by the end.
Eventually I backed off the front line to go back to base and buy stuff (no one was killing me to send me back automatically). I had so much cash I bought 3 levels of reinforcement upgrades in one go. The match was over soon after as towers fell quickly.
It is such a fun game. Each Demigod plays differently, and even different builds play differently. I think its better so far to concentrate on fewer skills that you level deeper into the tree than it is to spread yourself thin and try get them all.
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IGN has a video with Wardell showing off Stardock's building, Wardell's office, and they talk about the issues w/ Demigod online, what is coming in the next patch that will probably by out by Friday, etc etc. (http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/903770/gas-powered-games-project/videos/demigod_trl_day1_041509.html)
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Another quote from IRC:
<@kwindisc0429a> We didn't expect to have to put together an MMO type backend for an RTS. lol
The topic also changed to say they are doubling their capacity.
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Just seems like people want this game to fail for some reason. I don't get it...its FUN, even just playing a skirmish against AI. I'm totally happy with my purchase, and thats before they get the MP stable and running smooth or the addition of new maps and Demigods (2 new Demigods are already in the works, apparently)
Any idea when those new additions might be coming...?
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Re: pug's earlier comment about piracy expectations:
I figured the lack of DRM would keep a fair number of people who usually pirate due to DRM from doing so, and figured also that this game wasn't big enough to make a crap ton of people want to download it straight off. I mean, GPG are known, but this game wasn't hugely advertised and you didn't see a ton of buzz about it everywhere. It wasn't the new big-name FPS or what have you. I was expecting a bunch of people to pirate it, but not 120k on day one.
Been thinking about the game all day, can't wait to play some tonight. Unfortunately, I have to spend 90% of my night moving boxes to the new place. Ugh.
EDIT - I didn't even see the last page of posts. Whoops! Yeah, I love how different all the guys are, and it's cool how you can use gear to achieve different ends or to make up for weaknesses. The Unclean Beast has abilities that use his health to damage others. Normally you'd want to use those fairly sparingly, but if you buy the right gear with super high regen or maybe some life leach, all of a sudden you're a psychotic nightmare. Each Demigod seems to have various builds that make a lot of sense. It's hard to figure them out if you're just jumping into the game and sort of spending money as you get it, but the more you play and realize what everything does (the gear selection especially, since that's all the same regardless of which Demigod you choose), the more you get those little "oh snap, I totally know what I have to buy/upgrade now!" moments.
As for the server issues... this isn't really an educated statement because I'm a moron and I can't remember all the specifics, but I believe the trouble was that their servers were essentially routing everything and setting up matches, but then everything becomes peer-to-peer. I don't know how pirated copies interact with their servers, so I can't say much about that, but I know they made specific changes to keep pirated copies from doing as much damage as they had been, and they switched the default in-game IRC channel (it uses IRC for chat) to something else so that pirates were using a different channel from registered folks.
EDIT x2 - Just got a couple matches in before having to go to the house. Damn, so fun. You guys really should pick this up.
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Que and I just played through 2 matches. The first match we played on Crucible. I was Regulus (angel with a crossbow) and Que played Torchbearer (Fire/Ice magic dude). Enemies were Unclean Beast and the Necromancer. The map is fairly linear, with one single path to each home base. The middle area has 3 flags to fight over, with one giving 2 gold mines and access to the Artifact shop.
So we push back and forth, capturing and recapturing flags as we try to dent the enemy towers. Soon as you take a few out your reinforcements can move deeper into enemy territory, pushing the enemy back away from your stuff and those central flags. One cheap item to buy in the home shop are teleport scrolls. With these you can teleport to any structure your team controls, so towers and flags. So if you can drop the frontline towers and keep the enemy from capping flags it will take them that much longer to get back into the fight (since they can't teleport in).
Eventually we maxed out our reinforcements at the Citadel, bringing out the "wrecking crew" of Catapultasaurus and Giants. We steamrolled 'em after that.
Our second game was on a different map (forget the name). We chose the same dudes, this time vs Rook and Queen of Thorns. We still won, but it was a little tougher this time (I thought). The Rook is a beast when hes upgraded his shoulder mounted weapons. Luckily I kept pushing up one side of the map and eventually captured on of the enemy reinforcement spawners, so we basically had our own reinforcements spawning in their base. Que took care of the other side of the map and even the middle. He was totally kicking ass.
I took a shot of the scoreboard at the end of the second map. You can see me with the angel wings, Que in front casting some badass ring of fire, the remains of the Rook right in front of us, and the enemy destroyed Citadel to the right.
(http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk254/lifesteak/th_dg1.jpg) (http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk254/lifesteak/?action=view¤t=dg1.jpg)
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I then tried to take TB onto the single player tournament on hard and promptly got demolished by basically everything. Gonna' need some more work to figure him out.
Love this game. Can't wait 'till some more OWnet folks get it so we can play and stuff.
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I have to laugh at some peoples complaints.
"DotA has 93 heroes and Demigod only has 8!"
Thats an actual figure. I wonder how unique they could make 93 heroes, how how the hell you balance that many.
This one I just have to copy the whole thing:
Another 24? till monday? are you guys gona work thru the weekend to try and get it going?
or should i go ahead and sucker some noob on ebay into paying me 30$ now cause it wont be fixed anytime soon?
yes i am playing , but i bought the game on monday its now friday(3am but still friday) and i have only been able to play 20games online.
I played over 300 for dow2 my first week, yet i can even hit 100 in demigod cause of broken MP coding.
300 games in the first week? Did he like...sleep at any point?
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Sitting on the official chat is either encouraging when you see people talking about strategies and how great the game is, or annoying as hell when some 12 year old gets on there claiming to know how to write better netcode. Fucking stupid people in the world.
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or annoying as hell when some 12 year old gets on there claiming to know how to write better netcode
hehe...
Imagine if it was the opposite... some old timer showed up, "Back in my daaaaaay."
Damn, that's what we'll be in a few years.
Shit! I just realized I'll be around 50 when Diablo 5 comes!!! :(
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Haha. Yes, we all need to purchase really good old-man internet sticks to hit the young'uns with.
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Wardell again, clarifying some stats.
1. The 18,000 figure is the # of concurrent users at the peak. On the Steam stats page, for instance, you can see the peak concurrent users on titles that talk to Steam: Current Players Peak Today Game
81,543 90,824 Counter-Strike: Source
57,343 68,662 Counter-Strike
18,788 23,755 Football Manager 2009
14,577 15,606 Empire: Total War
14,394 16,430 Left 4 Dead
11,860 14,030 Team Fortress 2
So just above Empire Total War in terms of peak connections (game just launched so it's not a surprise).
#2
The infrastructure was designed to handle up to 50,000 of these connections.
But on day 0, there were around 140,000 concurrent users of which 18,000 are validated.
Pirated users can't get updates or play multiplayer but they still touch the servers.
So over the first 24 hours, we had to essentially scrap together a doppleganger of the infrastructure dedicated to Demigod's multiplayer network needs, release an update to legitimate users to point them to it.
The result was that in the first day, day and a half, users couldn't connect to each other (the connection servers would time out) and even the in game experience was horrible getting through menus and such because even a simple HTTP keep alive call (something as simple as a http call to check for the latest version to inform users if there's a new version) would cause the in game UI to hang.
The consequence is two-fold: First, early customers got a TERRRIBLE experience. Second, the reviews (notably Gamespot) based their review on this terrible experience.
Now today, day 3, it's pretty much taken care of. Users are connecting in multiplayer, the servers are pretty responsive and we're adding more in preparation for the weekend.
If there's any IT people here, they can probably better explain than I can what we've had to do essentially. It's not like we keep a room full of unused servers so the challenge of putting together a duplicate series of servers in 24 hours PLUS Stardock and GPG having to produce an update to the game to point to those servers was quite an undertaking.
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If this doesn't regain Gamespot its anal reputation, nothing will.
Stardock's biggest mistake was not to buy a multimillion dollar level of advertising on Gamespot.
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I've pretty much given up on Gamespot. I like Van Ord, for the most his opinion generally agrees with mine, but lately he's been off.
I'm waiting for Giantbomb to review Demigod just to compare and contrast.
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1UP review (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3173791&p=1)
Gives it a "highly-recommended C" and plans to re-review it once the multiplayer stabilizes.
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I've actually hated Gamespot since a little before the mass exodus. I think Van Ord is an idiot, mostly for his review of Dawn of Mana which I couldn't possibly disagree with more. He didn't piss me off quite so bad after that, but he generally annoys me with little things and I think he misses the boat on a lot of stuff. I like some of the dudes who went to Giant Bomb, though I still hate reading almost anything Gerstmann writes.
Not also for 1UP that the average rating from editors and users is A, and user average is 7.8 at GSpot (where you've still got a bunch of jackasses who wrote negative user reviews on day one, etc.).
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Wardell posts another large update (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/347467).
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I can understand people being frustrated with the bugs on day 1, I mean we've all had squabbles with games that are released in what seems to be "work in progress" status, but in the case of Demigod the bugs are not significant enough to judge the entire life cycle of the game! It is by no means substandard, it is a quality product. The bugs will be resolved soon via updates anyway. It's no excuse for people to go berserk trashing the game.
The only valid complaint is the lack of content, which will apparently be addressed as well.
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Oddly enough, I'm not bugged by the relative lack of maps. I really like these maps and enjoy playing all of them in all the different modes, which is something I can't say for most RTS games. I tend to like maybe half the maps and not like the others much or at all. And a lot of them tend to be pretty samey... these feel quite different since the physical layout actually seems to matter more here.
Just a sidenote.
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Oddly enough, I'm not bugged by the relative lack of maps. I really like these maps and enjoy playing all of them in all the different modes, which is something I can't say for most RTS games. I tend to like maybe half the maps and not like the others much or at all. And a lot of them tend to be pretty samey... these feel quite different since the physical layout actually seems to matter more here.
Just a sidenote.
A worthwhile note. It says a lot about the impressive quality of the maps, few as they are.
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Man, Wardell just keeps updating us with all kinds of interesting info. And he sounds like he's also playing it a lot online with people, too. Man, I wish more CEO's would talk like this guy does and give us all kinds of insight on things and what they plan to do to fix stuff. He's really one of a kind in today's world of CEO's, I must say.
Wardell and Gas Powered, just keep pumpin' away at fixing the issues like you've been...
The only valid complaint is the lack of content, which will apparently be addressed as well.
We know there will be new maps and Demigods -- I just hope it's free, since there seems to be only 8 maps and no SP campaign. I'm sure adding new maps and new Demigods will go a long way with people who already bought the game and are lookin' for more content, since there seems to be a lack thereof...
Now, while the reviews are likely to have a pretty serious impact on sales, it does not affect our plans to continue to release updates and enhancements to the game nor does it affect our plans to release additional free Demigods.
Awesome @ (some) new Demigods will be free. That's excellent news! :)
[00:51] <TorchedGeek> Frogboy, I know you've got alot on your plate right now, but are you/GPG expecting to release an SDK for Demigod in the future?
[00:53] <@Frogboy> I expect there to be modding.
[00:53] <@Frogboy> Depends on sales which influences budget.
If GPG and Stardock can drop some sort of SDK or some sort of map maker/editor (given what Idol and Que said about this using Max), that would really blow the roof off. We'd all never have to worry about lack of maps or content, if they do that. I sure hope they do it. I'm sure there's a boomin' mod community waitin' for such a release -- especially since this really is a MP-focused kind of game.
3. Pantheon games. Right now, the system is excessively biased for new players – it wants to include AI players as cannon fodder. While this is fine and dandy for new players, once you know what you’re doing, having AI players in the game is incredibly annoying. So next week we’re going to change it so that if you have played a few games, it will wean the player off of AI players until you only play humans online. Same for Skirmish.
Cool.
I’ve seen a lot of news articles this week and a lot of confusion about what occurred this week. The issue isn’t terribly complicated.
Ars Technica had a good article that describes what happened. But still, a lot of people seem to think warez users are able to play multiplayer games. No, they can’t. Even the retail box has a serial # in it that users have to use and be validated to play online.
That's good to hear that they can't get onto Stardock's servers to play MP side of things -- especially since this game was built really for MP.
What brought down servers was a lot more benign than that. It was the HTTPS requests to inform users if there was a new version along with checking the community features for info (friends lists, chat channels, etc.) and things like that. Things like that are pretty piddly. It’s only when you get a ton of users doing that at the same time that it becomes a problem as we saw.
But here’s the thing: While piracy is annoying, you can’t blame piracy for this problem. Let’s face it, there’s plenty of data out there about how many pirated games are being played. We should have looked at that. We assumed since Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations, both of which sold extremely well and got great reviews, that the # of pirated copies of Demigod in use would probably be in the same ballpark, maybe twice as much. But had we looked at what other publishers have said, we would have known that it’s not unusual for there to be hundreds of thousands of warez copies in use.
And if we had, we could have simply had the retail version not have any HTTP calls in it and instead just had an update button on the main menu to check for updates and voila, problem solved.
I always liked the idea of not being forced to update -- that if I want to update, I make the call to the server to check if there is one -- a la what NWN2 does.
Though, I do like to be alerted if there is an update out there.
The second misconception is the argument that because Demigod’s retail version is heavily pirated that it costs massive sales. But that, again, puts the blame on the wrong parties. If you want to talk about the horrible multiplayer experience on launch day, well, that’s our fault because of what I said above. If you want to say that the horrible day 1 multiplayer experience resulted in negative game reviews which will seriously damage the game’s sales then I say again, that’s our fault too because of what I said above OR we could have just sent out the review copies on release day (Tuesday) and reviewers wouldn’t have had it until Thursday by which point the problem had largely been resolved and the review scores would have been fine. But in either case, it’s still our fault.
What other CEO you know would take all the blame for the product, despite all of the excuses (i.e. GameStop releasing the game early, game pirated to holy hell) he could've used to blame for all the madness surrounding this game?
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GameBizBlog got a new interview w/ Brad Wardell. (http://www.gamebizblog.com/gamebizblog/2009/04/interview-brad-wardell.html)
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Sorry D, I'm cutting the quotes. It doesn't seem like it needs a thread of its own, but this is a Demigod thread, and that didn't really have anything to do with the game. So it seems appropriate to leave it here, but it doesn't need to headline.
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Heres a short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpsMm1mThRM) I took of the ending of a match Que and I just played. Nothing major, you can just see us kick ass.
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My axe-swinging hand was starting to hurt from pushing it into people's faces.
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Heres a short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpsMm1mThRM) I took of the ending of a match Que and I just played. Nothing major, you can just see us kick ass.
That vid was awesome, Idol...
EDIT:
Sorry D, I'm cutting the quotes. It doesn't seem like it needs a thread of its own, but this is a Demigod thread, and that didn't really have anything to do with the game. So it seems appropriate to leave it here, but it doesn't need to headline.
Fair enough.
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There is a lot of "hidden strategy" in this game. Things that seem like a good idea, but unless played at the right time can backfire.
For example, on the larger maps there are extra portals to capture. Capturing them gives you more reinforcements. Sounds like a no-brainer to cap, right? Wrong! At least, not at first. Basic reinforcements are pretty weak, their main use is to build XP for the demigods. So during the first half of the game if you cap those flags you're basically handing your enemy more XP. Its better to have your enemies cap them and you farm the dudes that come out of the portals. Once you've leveled up sufficiently and upgraded your reinforcements, then you go grab the portal and pour on the hurt.
Speaking of upgraded enforcements, you have to watch that as well. The first upgrade are priests that heal you and your troops. Useful, yes but early on they are another form of XP for the enemy. Even with the healing they provide your creeps go down fast. Its better to save that gold and buy several ranks of troops at once. Priest, Angels, Catapults, and Giants. At least the first 2 at once, and the more the better.
Man, I'm loving this game.
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Yeah, I'm learning all the nuances now that I'm playing on Hard mode. It's really sink or swim, so I'm finding new ways to deal with problems.
But yes, like idol I'm absolutely loving the game. It's actually not all tactics, which is surprising. Like idol said already there are things you have to think about. Like in the game I just played, my team were at levels 16, 15, 14, and 13, and the enemy team were at 18, 19, and two 20s. But even though they utterly outleveled us, this was a "fortress" map variant, in which the objective is to destroy several fortresses scattered around the map while protecting your own. Even though by the end of it they were kicking our asses, we had 3 fortresses at nearly full health and they only had two at about half. We owned all the spawning platforms (which is why they leveled up so fast), so the tide of guys just wasn't enough for them to deal with despite being the superior force. We weighed them down under sheer numbers. I was playing as the Oak, who has an ability that lets him go apeshit for a couple seconds after being "killed", and I used this three times to deal massive damage to the foremost fortress. They couldn't do shit about it, and by then I threw my last bit of money into spawning giants, and the tide of the army was simply too much for them.
The game definitely has a focus on tactics in some ways, but it's not in a spammy RTS kind of way. You don't control each and every unit, so you have to think globally in some ways, and tactically in others. I was doing good on the strategy part and winning games regularly on Normal, but on Hard I realized quickly that superior tactics from the AI were making short work of me every time. I had to learn when to use abilities that would interrupt the other demigods, I had to learn how to make good use of teleport scrolls to get quickly around the map, and I had to learn how to balance speed boosts with health and mana boosts, and figure out how to manage an inventory of items like health and mana pots, etc. It sounds simple enough, but finding the right dynamic isn't necessarily so easy. You have to get a feel for the ebb and flow of the game and the way different demigods move and do damage. A little thing like 10% extra speed can be the difference between a guy getting away or you hammering him to death as he flees, giving you massive gold and XP. "Almost" never cuts it here.
The game is fantastic. I honestly don't feel the lack of maps at all now that I'm playing the other modes more. A game of fortress is *really* different from a game of domination, and those are both completely different from conquest. You have to know how to play each game type. They really don't play the same. Tactically, yes, your basic tactics will remain sound, but what you do, how you move, how you defend... these change drastically. And these modes change based on the map, too. A game of fortress on the medium-sized Exile map plays nothing at all like a game of fortress on the small Crucible map, and even the small Crucible map doesn't play like the small Prison map. These are good maps, so don't let the small numbers fool you.
You guys should totally pick this up. Idol and I used GameRanger to connect earlier and had good reliable speeds and no disconnects. Until Stardock gets the network issues sorted, it seems to be a perfect solution.
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Monday update from Wardell! (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/348096)
Even he loves GameRanger.
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Now right now, Demigod, as a game, is awesome. Demigod, as an on-line service, however, sucks ass.
Geez, now that's pretty blunt -- especially coming from a CEO talking about something his company published...
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Geez, now that's pretty blunt -- especially coming from a CEO talking about something his company published...
He's calling it as it is, you gotta respect that. He's backing that with the promise that it will be resolved too, so here's hoping.
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He's calling it as it is, you gotta respect that. He's backing that with the promise that it will be resolved too, so here's hoping.
Agreed 100%
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And that's being overly harsh. Plenty of people are doing fine now, it's just that there's stuff that's still imperfect for a certain demographic, and this needs to be addressed. But they're hardly the first company to go through this, they're just getting it worse than most because of the initial breakdown. That kept them from getting closer to fixing the current problems because they had more immediate issues to deal with.
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Day 7 report/video -- about 28 minutes long (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/348714/Demigod_Video_Status_Report_Day_7)
Day 8 status report (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/348771/Demigod_Day_8_Status_Report)
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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 (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349002/) for a related update from Brad.
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Shit.
I guess they are really regretting that P2P system.
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Woo! (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349758)
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.
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Woo! (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349758)
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).
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For those that don't have the game yet...just hold on a little longer. According to this post (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/350280), 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).
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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.
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That's really awesome.
They really want to support their game, their gamers / consumers, and obviously get more people to get this game.
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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! (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/349758)
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.
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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.
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I trust Stardock more so than Valve.
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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.
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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!
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"Frogboy" Brad Wardell talks about Version 1.1 Release Candidate that he has in his hands from GPG. (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/355890)
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.
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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.
(http://s94054002.onlinehome.us/Minis/Random/Rook_bare.jpg)
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Damn, that's pretty nice. Stop making me wish that I'd gotten the CE.
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Version 1.1 should release tomorrow! (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/357191)
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.
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Thanks for the news, Idol!
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Kick. Ass.
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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.
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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.
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I feel so damn left out... :(
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Did you even get the game?
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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! (http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=5290.0)
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Oh. Well I dunno', I make a lot of posts. Have you been playing it much?
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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.
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On the road to 1.2 (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/357622)
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 (http://www.demigodthegame.com/opengames.asp) 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.
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End of July report (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/360013)
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.
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Awesome. We need to get some more matches in one of these nights. I had so much fun playing with you guys.
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That looks like Demigod is gonna have an awesome update.
Looks like I need to start playing that again, eh?
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Demo up on Fileplanet (http://www.fileplanet.com/203030/200000/fileinfo/Demigod-Demo)
I'm sure mirrors will be available soon.
UPDATE
Fileshack mirror (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/14870/Demigod+Demo)
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.
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Seems a bit late to release a demo.
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Demigod Preview: The Demon Assassin (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/361225/Demigod_Preview_The_Demon_Assassin)
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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?
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More reason for me to get back into Demigod...
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Version 1.19.130 will be released tomorrow. (http://forums.demigodthegame.com/364282)
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.
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New Demigods soon! (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/366910/New_Demigods_prepare_to_go_out_to_the_public)
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.
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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.
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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). (http://impulsedriven.com/dem)
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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.
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Thanks, Idol - you rock!
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Are you guys still playing this? I grabbed the demo and enjoyed it, I'm thinking of buying it.
$30 seems like a bit much, though. Does anyone still have a 50% off coupon that they aren't going to use?
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Sorry man, I think they all expired. My last one died Nov. 1st. It's a good game, though, definitely worth picking up. I haven't played in quite a while, but I've been itching to play some again. We had a total blast with it. I think some places have been selling it cheaper than $30. I think it was even spotted at Target not too long ago. Check around.
EDIT - Amazon has used copies starting at 8 bucks, and a shitload of new ones for $10.
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The second free demigod, Oculus, has been released. There are some funny instructions to access it, though.
Demigod v1.20 (1.20.147 on Impulse)
--------------------------------
- Add Oculus for FREE to your Demigod account by entering your email address at https://store.stardock.com/product.aspx?productid=ESD-SDE-W005. You will need to logon to Multiplayer in-game after adding to your account to be able to access in single and multi-player modes.
- Oculus: Blast Off range now increases from 15 flat to 15/16/18/20.
- Oculus: Brain Storm clears negative effects.
- Oculus: Ball Lightning health increased from 600/650/700/750 to 600/765/930/1095.
- Fixes for Russian voice localizations.
Some people are asking why its not just added as a regular update, but its pretty obvious. They are testing the system for selling demigods. This one just happens to be free, but you go through the steps anyway.
Anyway, its cool. Can't wait to check him out.
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If it's free, it's for me! :)
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Demigod Owners - you probably got this e-mail, too.
I got an e-mail from Stardock that has a promo code for 75% off a digital download of Demigod for any friend.
That'll make the game AFTER the coupon cost $7.49.
(It's $29.99 for digital download BEFORE the coupon.)
So, anyone want it?
EDIT:
Coupon is good until Feb. 18th.
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DemiGod Owners...
You likely received another 75% percent off coupon from Stardock to give to a friend.
Anybody want a 75% off coupon for a Demigod DL from Impulse?
Let me know.
It's good until April 8th.
Reg. price = $19.95.
After 75% coupon = $4.99.
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Awesome news! (http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/article/382321/Demigod_v13_is_in_testing)
Greetings!
GPG has submitted to us version 1.3 of Demigod for testing. It addresses a whole bunch of outstanding issues that have been reported.
GPG has intimated to us that v1.3 is the beginning of a new series of free updates to Demigod. I will have more details next week as it goes through QA.
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Haha sweet :D I just bought it too! I went for the $10 special they have going on.
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Man, I haven't played Demigod in a while. And when I did play it, I couldn't stop playing it. It was just a blast - a RTS/RPG hybrid.
We need more Demigod content. Get going on that, GPG! :)
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1.30 released (http://www.impulsedriven.com/news/1816/Demigod_v130_Released)
Gas Powered Games and Stardock Entertainment have released version 1.30 of Demigod today. Available now for all registered customers via the Impulse client, this new update includes bug fixes and gameplay improvements. Changes include:
* Abilities while moving fix: Demigod movement has been re-architected to resume attacking previous targets after using abilities. This fixes multiple problems with triggering Demigod abilities while moving.The following exceptions and modifications are by design:
* Direct targeted abilities, where it makes sense, will cause the Demigod to switch targets (like Warp Strike and Pounce). This will also set the old target variable so if they use a further ability they will go back to attacking their new target.
* Escape abilities (like Warp Scroll and Bat Swarm) will not re-engage the old target and will actually clear the old target so using another ability will not cause you to re-engage.
* Giving a move order will clear your old target. So, giving a move order and then casting Warp Area will cause DA to attack whatever he ends up closest to.
* Fix for ranged units stopping short when ordered to attack structures.
* Fix for summoned minions not starting at max health when the player has +minion health items.
* Fix for Oculus' Ball Lightning spawning in invalid locations.
* Unclean Beast's Plague ability will no longer overwrite Post Mortem.
* Wings of the Seraphim will no longer be removed when healed.
* Heart of Life effects will no longer be removed when healed.
* Fix for obscure Russian-translated map domination crash. Thank you, Ptarth, for helping to point the way on that.
* Achievement and Single Player tournament screen Demigod lists now have scrollbars.
* Oculus’ Ball Lightning will now benefit from standard minion HitPoint Buffs.
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Sweet, Idol.
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Sequel? (http://www.vg247.com/2010/08/24/taylor-weve-got-a-lot-of-interest-in-a-sequel-to-demigod/)
Gas Powered Games head Chris Taylor has made first mention of a sequel to PC action-RTS Demigod, speaking at gamescom last week.
“We made an investment in that game and we spent a lot of money on it. Now, some things have happened since that; we’ve got a lot of interest in a sequel to Demigod,” said Taylor, speaking to Gamers.fr.
“Maybe the kids will go to college if we do a really good job on the sequel, and we can make some of the money back that we invested in the core game and the core IP.”
Then there was this stupid thing, I think from the other french web site.
Demigod, developed by GPG and published by Stardock, was a textbook example of what can happen if you don’t have adequate anti-piracy measures in place for a PC launch.
In its first week on sale, the game was played by more than 120,000 people online and only bought 18,000 times.
Yeah, as if this isn't a problem with games with DRM on them. Give me a break.
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I think I'm among the vast minority of people who bought it but never played online.
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You probably arent a minority at all. Most games, even multiplayer focused ones, has a majority of people never taking it online.
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Demigod 2 sounds good to me. :)
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Demigod = $4.99 to download on Impulse currently. (http://www.impulsedriven.com/dem)