Just wanted to highlight some of the truly outrageous Axes and Acres ranks out there. I had no idea ranks this high were even mathematically possible. Allan is truly a gifted player.
I’m super excited to see that several players have passed the 100 hours played mark at this point, with a few over 200 (and beyond!)
I have a few planned features to support extremely high level play, and to allow for returning to the game after a break more easily, so stay tuned for that!
Couple random design lesson thoughts from SkyBoats:
-Tutorialization process went much better for most people than for Axes and Acres. The semi-guided FTL style tutorial seems to work well, and is going to be the default for BrainGoodGames going forward.
-Wind patterns do a good job of allowing players to create a cool machine to score points with, and heavily rewards smart forethought and play
-SkyBoats does a good job of making your moves feel like an AWESOME thing you did, rather than just scraping by. I really like this aesthetic
-Unlockables that trigger on win and loss are a good way to take some of the sting out of a loss
-Depth is great, but I need to more strongly consider the amount to which a player can process/where the information horizon is placed (Minos Strategos does a better job balancing this I think)
-Wind patterns are a cool mechanic, but some players are too overwhelmed to really dig into them
-Being able to use boat powers in any order is a good example perhaps of somewhere that the complexity ramps up a bit too hard
Having said that, there are a lot of things that are really neat about this system that I want to explore a bit more. I want to try adding a stripped down version of the concept as an alternate game mode. Smaller board, hand of cards rather than goods providing powers, fewer boats/one boat. Would you be interested in a mode like that?
Just wanted to give a big thank you to the testing team on Minos Strategos. Your dedication has helped make this project WAY BETTER than it would be otherwise, and your encouragement has been extremely motivating.
So thanks Esty, Viva, Kenbutsu, Toad_Racer, Bayushi and to anyone else who submitted a bug report or gave feedback! Minos Strategos was made by and for you!
NEW CARDS:
-Added 5 New Cards (Slingers, Archer, Frenzy, Shout, Spirit Army)
(Stay tuned for a blog post about their design!)
Card Changes:
-Modified Phalanx formation
-Modified Cycle formation
-Modified Massacre formation
-Changed Prayer Move to Attack Move
-Changed an Attack to Attack Spawn on Catapult
-Tweaked Fireblast to allow aiming up and down
-Cannon is now Attack Move 2
-Tweaked Assassinate formation
-Added Move 1 to Warrior
-Changed Attack 1 on Prayer to Spawn 1
Features/Bugfixes:
-Fixed a couple saving/loading bugs with serpent
-Tweaked credits text
-Added save corruption handling system
-Fixed Leaderboard ordering bug
http://steamcommunity.com/app/577490/discussions/0/135508031950540122/
-Added save backup/corruption prevention system
-You now go straight to your first game from the last tutorial level
-Time doesn’t tick on enemy turn
-Fixed bug when returning to main menu too quickly
-Set target framerate to 60
-Fixed killed enemies count not working
-Cubes are now faded after dividing to indicate they won’t move
-Added placement match to settings menu
http://steamcommunity.com/app/421260/discussions/0/135508017190204121/
As always, I’ll be looking for your feedback for this one! Let me know what you wanna see! Thanks so much for your support :).
I’m very excited about the early response to Minos Strategos! It has been very gratifying to hear that the game seems to be easier to get into than Axes and Acres, and has a good deal of strategic depth as well (already, some of the top players have logged more than 40 hours of play!)
I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you to everybody who plays or has played BrainGoodGames.
I’m looking forward to adding new cards and Dionysus Mode (more info to come) to Minos Strategos! Onward and upwards!
Played some Base Set dominion this past weekend, and it reminded me how much I appreciate the clean and elegant design of this game. As a result, I’ve been reading through a bunch of the Dominion 2nd edition changes. 🙂
First off, it’s very cool that Donald X Vaccarino and Rio Grande are willing to go back to tweak and fix things in already released games (a rarity in the board game industry).
More specifically, it was very gratifying to see that a lot of the card removals were in line with the cards that I felt were tedious/not pulling their weight/underpowered in the base set (Spy and Adventurer being excellent examples). The replacements also seem to be in line with the elegance of the other Base Set cards, which is something I tend to value highly!
In short, Dominion 2nd edition is cool, DXV should feel good about it.
Patch Notes:
-Added option to get to menu with the mouse only (in ’?’ menu).
-Tweaked “Next Ultimate” preview hover text.
-Fixed bug with full help page and pressing ESC to bring up the menu.
-Added link to the patch notes to the game.
-Zeus shrine no longer spawns as one of the first two shrine spawns.
-Shrines no longer spawn in within 2 cells of the edge of the board.
-A already-spawned shrine type will not be spawned until all have been spawned.
-Scores update one at a time now.
Hotfix: (Live on Beta)
-Changed messaging on game over screen
-Fixed issue where menu popups would trigger each time ESC was pressed
-Fixed issue where minotaur next turn counter would not update during an attack move/kill action
http://steamcommunity.com/app/577490/discussions/0/135507548128489499/
Congratulations to Vivafringe for achieving the truly impressive rank of 25 in the main Play Mode of Minos Strategos!
I’m considering adding a monthly (or seasonal?) ladder reset alongside the regular “All-Time Best” ladder rankings, to give newer players something more immediate to shoot for. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on it!
