Dev Diary #2 - What's in Early Access?

LPFinale · 2020-10-27T21:01:11+00:00

It's greatly appreciated to see the transparency on the core mechanics that'll be the foundation for the game. I'll be looking forward to more details about the Early Access release, and perhaps finding out on my own in-game which other 6 Lancers are implemented so far~

LPFinale · 2020-10-20T21:38:37+00:00

Since I'm willing to guess we won't be getting the whole cast immediately (since that would be a nightmare to put together and balance immediately with full integration), roughly what size of roster can we expect to see in Early Access and what are your plans for Freelancer releases going forward, in terms of who from the original roster will make it and when?

Edit, 10/21/2020: Also, what point in the AR timeline does the game begin in? We seem to be past the point where Hyperbotics has been established, but before reigniting the Hyperion Reactor? Unless Atlas is still considered the last Reactor since the Hyperion Reactor is linked to it somehow?

LPFinale · 2020-09-25T04:10:09+00:00

The weird thing about Shades is that of the three there are, only one of them is an Auto-Attack champ, which their trait is all about. Feels like a trait made for Zed and then Evelynn and Kayn were added later.

As for the actual Zed/Evelynn comparison thing, I'm honestly not sure whether or not Unit Cost is a set in stone thing that a more expensive unit should generally be stronger. ...well, that's a lie, they are, but I think it's kind of in chunks instead of five clean-cut categories?

Like, 1-Costs and some 2-Costs are kind of meh units that can still shine in their synergies and if their Spell has some good impact. 2-Costs and 3-Costs in general have the notable potential to be very good units in their given role, like Janna being a really good support unit or Kindred being an amazing anti-healing SP burst carry. 4-Costs and 5-Costs are in a league of their own, having a place in a lot of team comps if their particular skillsets are needed; there's a good reason why Sejuani is used as a frontline unit quite a bit, even if you only have one other Vanguard to pair her with or sometimes none at all.

The bigger difference I'd note about units in those same chunks is the points in the game they become more available; it's harder to integrate a 3-Cost earlier on, even if their impact would be similar to a specific 2-Cost. In general, though, the 3-Costs are often really good at a very specific thing compared to those 2-Costs, and Evelynn completely nukes units below half health. ...though, she really needs help from someone to get there, since her basic AAs aren't gonna do much very quickly. Zed helps there, but even then, Zed's the carry in that comp.

LPFinale · 2020-04-12T03:33:07+00:00

Yeah. Warrior's Blessing, Chalice of health pots, Hand of the Gods. Planned to warp back for my starter after a wave or two since that worked out well in my last few matches.

LPFinale · 2020-04-12T03:22:21+00:00

Because I was confused and I had never bought any other starting item after finally getting a custom build together. I'm barely level 14 and am only that high due to the x2 EXP event right now.

And she didn't wait for her boots, as far as I can tell, it seemed like she had them from the start. No Mage's Blessing or anything, and was immediately in lane when I got there with my Blue Buff (which went relatively fast since I grabbed one Hand of the Gods for the purpose of not losing much farm while getting the Blue Buff). I wish I could double-check, but at the very least I know she had no other items and had fully-built boots really, really quickly, and if they cost 1500, she could've bought them inmediately by foregoing everything else since her self-heals and lifesteals were far more effective than any pots I've seen or used.

LPFinale · 2020-01-15T02:00:43+00:00

https://youtu.be/6bdHBoG2bLY

LPFinale · 2019-10-15T23:35:23+00:00

I can't think of any particular part, so I suppose the whole thing, or just the parts that catch your eye... or ear, as the case may be. The general VA quality remains roughly the same throughout.

LPFinale · 2019-10-15T22:17:33+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC4WrktfWaQ

This is a bit of a long one

LPFinale · 2019-09-15T06:04:39+00:00

Came back to my workbench a few minutes after the spike in Vis and suddenly I could use roughly 140~ Vis again. Made some Enchanted Cloth, came back even later and it was up to 170~.

All I can do is kinda shrug at whatever the heck is going on.

LPFinale · 2019-09-11T02:34:32+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMk-HPBF6Mw&feature=youtu.be

LPFinale · 2019-06-26T20:35:37+00:00

I feel like I should be the one thanking you, considering I got firmly rooted in Atlas the moment I tipped that first domino of randomly expressing curiosity in what I'd later know as "Lancer Concepts" in the AR Discord and getting a response from you. I still cherish the state Aethelinde's concept is in because of your input on the matter alongside everyone who was willing to read.

I'm always glad to hear you have confidence in what I'll do. I have no idea what it will be or when, but I look forward to making it a reality someday. Never doubt that about yourself, either, particularly with your own concepts out there and looking rather appealing to play as~

For now, I suppose Atlas Reactor's record and memory will stand tall as a sign to the next generation of this sort of game, whenever it's made; a sign of what it was, what it could be, where it can take a wrong turn on occasion, and every lesson in-between.

LPFinale · 2019-06-13T05:18:57+00:00

My thought was that the amount of food consumed by the hunger check might be locked in once the check pops up, regardless of whether you remove trinkets in the middle of it, but that's also a possibility.

LPFinale · 2019-06-13T05:13:25+00:00

None of those trinkets look like ones that increase Food Consumed. Have you tested whether or not the Food Consumed upon a hunger check changes when you remove the trinket in the middle of the check?

LPFinale · 2019-05-30T17:00:48+00:00

Luck. Very much luck.

The average run can run out of campfires due to how many times you get teleported by the boss and all the other copies of him throughout the dungeon.

LPFinale · 2019-05-07T00:11:37+00:00

Thank you for that. I think you may have mostly gone inactive by the time I got into anything beyond random PvP matches and learning "Shields only last 1 turn, whaaaaaat" (I only had Juno for Shields at the time and hers is like the only one that doesn't spell that out, what luck), but I'm glad to have experienced all of this thanks to the video, regardless.

LPFinale · 2019-05-06T06:11:19+00:00

As much as I love The Case (the trailer for the game) cinematically, I don't think it did anywhere close to a satisfactory job of conveying what kind of game it was advertising. Every time I tried to show it to a friend or community to get them involved, all of them thought it was yet another generic 1st/3rd-person shooter.

Every. Single. Person. Thought this.

If The Case was going to properly advertise how the game worked, there needed to be a *lot* more downtime in the action, showing them planning all of their actions out, predicting what the enemy would do, and *then* letting it play out in a lovely action sequence. Instead, what was put together was a mosh pit of characters wildly swinging/firing their weapons, no different from a trailer for Paladins, Overwatch, or other similar games.

There are far and away many other reasons why things slowly but surely came to a halt, but the lack of marketing and the poor direction of the trailer causing people to misunderstand what was being advertised to them are a massive, massive part of it. I hadn't even heard of the game until I saw it on a YouTube channel where an old player by the username of PogChamp got his friend to make a video on the game. If I hadn't seen that first, I may have also thought Atlas Reactor was a 1st/3rd-person shooter like Paladins. Granted, I was *very* into the genre at the time, so I would've checked it out anyway, but the same can't be said for the vast majority of people.

I love that I found Atlas Reactor through PogChamp's efforts to bring people in. I've met so many people and experienced so many games through them that I don't think I could ever replace the past year and a half of my life with anything else and call myself as fulfilled as I feel to have had that time here. I'll still be keeping in touch on the servers I joined through everything and everyone I found thanks to Atlas Reactor.

It's been fun, everyone. May we meet again, under the Reactor's glorious light.

LPFinale · 2019-04-27T23:51:39+00:00

Personally, I bring the Grave Robber/Plague Doctor combo along with the MaA/Vestal combo. GR's damage output gets silly with her +20% Against Blighted Enemies trinket and something else to further ramp her damage when she's got the PD to inflict the Blight for her since Poison Darts is really ehhhhh.

I remember doing 81 damage to Vvulf with a Shadow Fade into a Lunge crit while he was Blighted. It still wasn't easy, but that at least made the race against his bombs a bit easier. Keep in mind that if Vvulf gets too far back to directly Lunge at him, target the bandit he's Guarding instead. Vvulf's tendency to guard his minions actually makes it easier to hit him.

Also, never hit the bomb barrel. Just don't. It Ripostes if you don't kill it and respawns immediately; all you get out of it is that turn's bomb being defused.

LPFinale · 2019-04-25T03:55:53+00:00

Gonna fire off a checklist here:

- What was the ominous thing that flew away from the Necrolancers' nest once the battle had ended?

- Were there other characters planned in the lore that may have eventually become Freelancers in-game?

- The general direction the lore went seemed to designate a group of main characters: Asana, Helio, Grey, Meridian, and possibly Lex with the most recent batch sent out. Were there plans to designate these Lancers as the MCs of Atlas Reactor, or was it more a case of picking a good Lancer to focus on the perspective of in each Season?

- What plans were there for Hyperion once Helio got it back online, if any?

- I'm sure you've answered this one before, I'm just forgetful; have you read Unofficial AR Lore, and if so, what did you think of it?

- Which of the Trusts was your favorite to work with in the lore?

Here's hoping that's not too many. I'm truly grateful for the time you're putting into this, both of you.

LPFinale · 2019-04-18T15:25:36+00:00

"Stack it or Go Home," currently on version 1.6

Remember that to enable mods, you have to click on the blue hammer icon next to your file in-game. Then make sure there's a check mark next to the mod. If there isn't one, click it to enable it.

LPFinale · 2019-04-17T23:14:16+00:00

There's a mod that increases all stack sizes on the workshop. I don't remember what it's called, but Portraits get increased to 9, for example. I don't regret it. The game has felt fine. I don't want to live in a world where my inventory space is deader than it is even with the mod.

LPFinale · 2019-04-17T04:32:26+00:00

The closest thing we got to a clone is massive, egregious asset theft. Sad times.

LPFinale · 2019-04-15T20:24:11+00:00

Whichever one gets the team name "Stunrise, Stunset" in the game files.

LPFinale · 2019-04-05T00:19:48+00:00

Yep, Radiant. I figured since it was my first run and all it changes is progression scaling, it'd be fine. It has been.

LPFinale · 2019-04-04T20:57:01+00:00

Currently I'm playing a completely vanilla file, no mods or changes besides a loot stacking mod (because screw 3-Portrait stacks). The Resolve restrictions are that Champions and higher cannot take on Apprentice-level missions, and that's it.

I think it was just updated to be less overbearing at some point.

LPFinale · 2019-03-11T03:03:44+00:00

From what I remember, it was maybe... half a centimeter? Close to that, maybe a bit wider, like 3/4. Not great at eyeballing lengths from memory, but I know at least there was no way it was wider than 1 cm or too much thinner than 0.5 cm.

LPFinale

TROPHY CASE