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Vectron is a high point in a game that sets a very high bar generally. That tonal shift from what is a pretty upbeat cartoony game to ohshitohshitohshit is really effective. It was quite funny watching Lazyfire yolo through it, at least in comparison to my own tentative creeping and selective tunnelling trying to avoid detection. But to be fair when it inevitably kicks off everything becomes yolo anyway. The only thing I think Vectron is missing is there aren't really any secrets in there, but then it'd definitely lose something if you were able to revisit it for the sake of completionism. Fwoderwick fucked around with this message at 11:30 on Nov 15, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 11:27
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Fwoderwick posted:The only thing I think Vectron is missing is there aren't really any secrets in there, but then it'd definitely lose something if you were able to revisit it for the sake of completionism. There is one thing that loosely qualifies as a secret (though not in the game complete% sense), and Lazyfire yolo'd so hard he actually found most of it but didn't pick up on it.  It's not a huge secret anyway, though, so no worries. Technically there's a second secret, but it's so secret I don't think you can access it normally. You're certainly not supposed to. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Nov 15, 2019 |
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Nov 15, 2019 18:49
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 So the jetpack remains really fun. Unfortunately, for me; you may get a kick out of it yet, it appears that the developers expect me to actually know what the hell I'm doing and not be bumbling around because the difficulty just spikes here. That's not a complaint, not really. Steamworld Dig The First wasn't a hard game by any means, neither is the second. The problem with the first game was that the difficulty and complexity was kind of flat throughout. Dig 2 does a much better job of making the player adapt, learn and adjust their play style to the enemies in front of them and the scenario they are put in. There is 100% a better way to handle the snails bouncing around that what I did. There's probably an even better way of dealing with the acid droppers than what I show here (which is brute force, let's be honest) and that's a good thing because it's going to encourage you to think a bit more about what you are doing and how you are doing it. I'm sure there was some weirdo who just wanted to dig down and do a couple caves and turned the game off forever around this point, though.
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Nov 20, 2019 00:13
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Maybe you should take up that townsperson's offer and buy some cogs.
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Nov 20, 2019 04:16
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Mraagvpeine posted:Maybe you should take up that townsperson's offer and buy some cogs. Mraagvpeine posted:Offer to buy some cogs. Mraagvpeine posted:Buy some cogs. Mraagvpeine posted:Buy cogs. Mraagvpeine posted:Cogs. Mraagvpeine posted:COGS They're good.
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Nov 20, 2019 08:01
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Yeah, it's a pity there's no convenient way to get more cogs, like say, some town-based store. I really feel the developers dropped the cog on that one.
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Nov 20, 2019 18:40
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Man I got in late on this thread but yeah. Every other upgrade in this game had me saying "oh hell yes" out loud to myself in an empty living room but the hookshot and the jetpack elicited maximal figurative volume. I don't know what it is about grappling hooks in 2D action/platformers that's so viscerally satisfying or how this particular game manages to do such a good job of coupling every upgrade to an immediate and palpable sense of constantly opening possibility but man I get the sense that the devs of this one understand these things completely. Steamworld Dig 2 stands out - even among the other Steamworld games - for how perfectly attuned it is with itself, how well every aspect of it serves every other aspect, how tightly the whole package fits together. And always, always, it comes back to axing blocks and going down; the core mechanic serves the setting which serves the environments with serve the design which serves the mechanics. It's a game of humble aspirations which are fulfilled totally. My main observation of this LP is that I never expected someone to take such a cavalier approach to digging almost straight down in this game. It's amusing to see how frequently this habit produces difficulties getting at some of the deposits. It always seemed to me like the ore deposits generally represented this kind of low-level constantly unfolding platform puzzle in which the very specific limitations in place on your ability to break blocks (broadly, only ever in a cardinal direction from yourself, even when at range) necessitate you having to think a little about how to be able to reach them, complicated enormously by falling blocks you have to loosen (or avoid loosening), or enemies that will interfere by breaking important blocks for you, or occasionally just being an out and out puzzle. As soon as I twigged this in my playthrough I started pretty much always approaching each area methodically, sweeping from side to side and descending one block at a time like a space invader and turning every area into an open pit (save for some platforms to facilitate exit before getting the hookshot), because I must collect everything. I think Steamworld Dig 2's greatest triumph is that it doesn't turn this compulsion into torture - hell, it barely even slows you down, and yet it's still rewarding and engages with the puzzle parts of your brain. Please buy cogs.
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Nov 24, 2019 06:01
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Bad news everyone: I don't buy cogs in the next update either. Also I'm just now noticing that I didn't post it when I meant to on Friday because I'm bad at running an LP.
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Nov 25, 2019 17:43
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 So the exploding pink things are apparently called Hodge Pods, but I would have also accepted Acid Balls or Burn Balloons. Again, they're a nice addition to the variety of challenges and terrain traversal considerations you need to put into the game over the previous one. I've really enjoyed how the enemies do interact with each other in the game, between getting the bugs to kill each other or having the snails knock each other down a level or eight as they shoot off spikes and bounce around. The Hodgepods are a nice example of enemy/blocks that can mess with other enemies and also you simply by existing or being in the way. I'm not the best at being careful around enemies already, so these things are a mortal danger even with the level of armor I have.
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Nov 26, 2019 14:43
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The purple drank block eroding mechanic is one of those things that looks like a really straightforward concept but which I fear sits atop an underlying code nightmare. Or maybe it's actually really elegant and does something like spawn individual explosions with a given lifetime and causes impacted blocks to give themselves new explosions with less life. I also feel like these things could be used to craft some really nifty puzzles but weren't because even when this game gets puzzly it doesn't seem like it gets to the kind of cerebral level you'd need to be on to have puzzles where the solution is to blow up a hodgepod but tactically mine one block from next to it to stop a chain reaction in a certain direction. Maybe. (I feel like there exists a theoretical fascinating paper to be written on the subject of "exactly how clever does a game that's not primarily a puzzle game dare get with puzzles?".) (I feel like there exists, even more theoretically, a really good puzzle mod for Steamworld Dig 2)
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Nov 27, 2019 04:27
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Great episode - I went down to the bottom of the Yarrow before I got the jetpack so this area was an absolute nightmare. If you're looking for people to talk to there is still a bot outside the broken elevator at the start of the game. I believe she gets new dialogue whenever the other bots in town do. Can't wait for you to buy some cogs 
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Nov 27, 2019 09:26
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Fedule posted:The purple drank block eroding mechanic is one of those things that looks like a really straightforward concept but which I fear sits atop an underlying code nightmare. Or maybe it's actually really elegant and does something like spawn individual explosions with a given lifetime and causes impacted blocks to give themselves new explosions with less life. It's an enemy type called "acid_burn" that settles on the tile it spawns on and is scripted to deal damage to the tile at vaguely random intervals four times, then create a copy of itself with one less spread count on a random neighboring tile, then continue damaging the tile until the tile dies and the enemy is killed (because it was settled on the tile). The enemy then has an on-death event that fires an invisible projectile that immediately explodes and deals AoE damage to anything nearby. The enemy has no model, but it does have a particle effect attached to it (the purple glow). There are a few sub-instances of this enemy with lower spread counts. The drippers and others fire projectiles either continuously or on death. The projectile in turn spawns acid_burn, acid_burn_small or acid_burn_mini enemies on whatever they hit.
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Nov 27, 2019 22:16
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My stomach dropped many times during that last cave -- kudos to you for surviving it and the devs for making it big enough to cause that effect.
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Nov 28, 2019 06:12
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Lazyfire posted:
This one is unlisted too
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Nov 29, 2019 00:29
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 If you had to guess, solely from the banner image above, what do you think finally happens this video? If your answer is "pointlessly root around in a cave you already explored you are 100 percent correct. I know I missed something in there, I just need to find the hidden passage I missed. I really enjoy that the passages are mostly phantom blocks that lead to the secret they are hiding away. It gives you an incentive to hit every block you can when you know there's a secret nearby and the items that are blocked off by physical barriers are pretty clear and so let you know there's a bit of a puzzle in front of you when you find them. The phantom blocks are generally more "explore until you find the solution" sort of thing while random dirt blocks signify environmental or tech solutions are needed and so SHOULD keep a smart player from, say, slapping any random enemy with their pick and causing a chain reaction explosion that completely ruins what they were trying to do. Should. What I'm saying is that I'm not a smart player.
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Dec 2, 2019 23:25
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 I swear, Yarrow has no end. It just continues down. We're at the point where I think we have over double the videos (and probably triple the time) for SWD2 over the previous game. I don't think it is just because I'm bad, but because there is a lot of game to go through here. This episode features the first upgrade whose use I don't see an immediate advantage to outside of killing a specific enemy, and that use is somewhat negated because of the cog upgrade that lets me shoot steambombs in air. I have to assume that down the line we'll see more use out of it for navigation and probably fighting some enemies, but for now it seems like a quality of life upgrade in a lot of ways instead of an extremely useful jump in abilities like the other upgrades have been thus far. I think that either means were getting to the end of the game and just collecting some final items or there's going to be another upgrade to this upgrade that makes it indispensable.
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Dec 7, 2019 18:52
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Lazyfire posted:This episode features the first upgrade whose use I don't see an immediate advantage to outside of killing a specific enemy There is one very specific use case for it that is necessary for beating the game (unless you know how to sequence break it). But mostly it's a convenience upgrade, much like the grenade launcher. As I recall, shooting bombs in the air was added with some hesitation. A fundamental part of the Dig experience has always been planning your downward route, and breaking blocks above you and to the right in particular is something that hasn't been allowed before. At this point, I don't think there's anything in the game you can't access except for the final area.
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Dec 9, 2019 08:18
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As someone who bought the game during the black friday sale and 100%'d it because of this LP, I have to say: game is good. Knowing and remembering all of your tools can help you circumvent most of your problems. The grenade launcher, the no-damage from your own explosions mod and the grappling hook (to hold you in place) can let you snag annoying up left/up right mineral nodes that you accidentally dug past. Hyper Crab Tank posted:As I recall, shooting bombs in the air was added with some hesitation. A fundamental part of the Dig experience has always been planning your downward route, and breaking blocks above you and to the right in particular is something that hasn't been allowed before. At this point, I don't think there's anything in the game you can't access except for the final area. I was glad for it because of the bushwack beehive secret as well. Waiting for the few diagonal bees to get down there was pretty obnoxious. Especially compared to just hitting it with a pressure bomb  And really, once you have the jetpack the world is your oyster.
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Dec 9, 2019 10:48
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Of course, it is more than possible to beat the game without ever getting the jetpack. (As mentioned, there is an achievement for it, even.) Speedrun records have long since been shattered, but back during development we were routinely able to beat the game under 40 minutes without abusing any of the really broken mechanics (because we didn't know about them until people discovered them after release!). You might be wondering how a particular upcoming area can be done without the jetpack, but there's little you can't accomplish with some clever use of the hookshot...
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Dec 9, 2019 11:29
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It's quite rare for me to watch an LP where I know more about the game than the LPer and so it cuts me deep when I know where a secret is and it slides off screen. Not a complaint though, it's all good. Lazyfire are you thinking you'll go back and complete the challenge rooms during the LP or just leave them as they stand? Fwoderwick fucked around with this message at 14:25 on Dec 9, 2019 |
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Dec 9, 2019 14:17
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EponymousMrYar posted:I was glad for it because of the bushwack beehive secret as well. Waiting for the few diagonal bees to get down there was pretty obnoxious. Especially compared to just hitting it with a pressure bomb Since Lazyfire did this the pressure bomb way already - can’t you just use the horizontal bee he kills at ~34:45 in video 15?
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Dec 9, 2019 16:13
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Polsy posted:Since Lazyfire did this the pressure bomb way already - can’t you just use the horizontal bee he kills at ~34:45 in video 15? As far as I know that's the intended solution. You can also use the bee in the lower left.
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Dec 9, 2019 16:31
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Polsy posted:Since Lazyfire did this the pressure bomb way already - can’t you just use the horizontal bee he kills at ~34:45 in video 15? I knew that one was going to make it across before it got smeared against a wall, but going back and checking the video was too much 
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Dec 9, 2019 18:33
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Fwoderwick posted:It's quite rare for me to watch an LP where I know more about the game than the LPer and so it cuts me deep when I know where a secret is and it slides off screen. Not a complaint though, it's all good. I actually spend some time in the next couple videos hitting up some of the uncompleted (incomplete?) caves. Thanks to one of the cog upgrades I'll probably make you less frustrated in the coming videos wrt finding secrets.
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Dec 10, 2019 18:28
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With the amount of money you're making each trip, I'm sure you can buy one or two more cogs in town. I'm also wondering how many you can get from that bot.
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Dec 10, 2019 18:49
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Lazyfire posted:uncompleted (incomplete?) completen't
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Dec 11, 2019 00:25
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Polsy posted:Since Lazyfire did this the pressure bomb way already - can’t you just use the horizontal bee he kills at ~34:45 in video 15? Hyper Crab Tank posted:As far as I know that's the intended solution. You can also use the bee in the lower left. Hyper Crab Tank posted:... but there's little you can't accomplish with some clever use of the hookshot...
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Dec 11, 2019 01:52
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 Of all the upgrades I have termed useful I don't think anything is going to top this Cog Powered Lamp Enhancement I slotted in and which helped generate the title image. This makes everything so much easier and at the same time kind of worse. The reason for why things are better should be pretty clear: I can see everything by getting into range now. Collectibles are going to be simple to find, if not get to. The part that makes it worse is now my desire to inspect every corner of the world, whether I've been there or not, is only going to be more intense now that something tells me if I missed an item before. I mean, I missed a secret area that I had passed at least twice before, I don't know how you are supposed to find some of these. I guess that is, in reality, kind of the point of giving you something like the lamp upgrade, not every game should or wants to have impossible to find secrets and hidden rooms, something like this makes it possible to decide if you want to find everything on your own or to have the game give you some hints.
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Dec 13, 2019 01:37
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I think you missed showing the info on that skull artifact; it has a red dot in the top left corner. EDIT: Now that I finished the video, oof that sucks. Also, I think that any tunnel that doesn't have the check mark still has secrets. So that means you still need to explore the temple. Mraagvpeine fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Dec 13, 2019 |
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Dec 13, 2019 03:59
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Quick tip: If you're inside a puzzle cave and not sure if you've found everything yet, open up the map real quick. It'll show the area just outside and you can check if the cave has a checkmark on it or not.
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Dec 13, 2019 10:31
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Regarding how you're supposed to find some of these secrets. Some are just having a moment of "hmm this is an odd layout", but a lot of them are pretty heavily hinted at if you check the minimap out as you go.
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Dec 13, 2019 20:35
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I'd be okay with a long video of you revisiting caves and earlier dig areas to look for things you missed now that you have a way to locate them easier and have plenty more tools and abilities.
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Dec 15, 2019 03:54
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Same. I really it enjoy the videos, and longer ones are a treat.
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Dec 15, 2019 04:03
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 I'm nine hours into this playthrough and at this point I feel like I'm dragging out the LP not because the game is a slog, but because I don't want it to end and I'm clearly getting towards that point. You know in a Metroid game where you start being able to open all the doors and fill in the blank squares on the map and so it feels like you are close to the final boss and the credits? At that point you are a world beater and have a tool to use against nearly everything the game can throw at you and after spending a time just trying to survive that is a real power trip. That is where I am now. I can basically tank multiple hits, stay underground forever and zip around the map in seconds. Why would I want to finish this knowing that I'll either have to face a final boss that is going to test my limited skill or start over again knowing I missed a ton of items? If it feels like I'm delaying it is because I am. Next time I finish a bunch of caves. Maybe progress after that, we'll see.
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Dec 17, 2019 03:06
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Hey, it's nice to see you enjoy a game. This has been an extremely chill LP from the start so "dragging it out" is basically expected.
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Dec 17, 2019 14:03
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I wouldn't mind if you jetpack your way through every screen, filling in the map.
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Dec 17, 2019 18:13
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Mraagvpeine posted:I wouldn't mind if you jetpack your way through every screen, filling in the map. It's really difficult not to. That completionist urging is there for real. Next episode it becomes a thing for a while. I'm just waiting for the game to have like an upside down mine after the "end" boss. It really just keeps on going.
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Dec 17, 2019 19:24
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 If you were hoping I would go back to the button palace and finish that puzzle, this is your episode. Getting all the missed cave checks out of the way took far less time than I thought it would, but that is probably largely because the various upgrades I've been earning just make getting through areas that much easier. There are still hard stops, like the one way breakable blocks you see at the end of most of the puzzle caves, but getting through the caves themselves is a pretty easy time now. I feel more than know we're near the end here. The upgrade I pick up in this episode and the jetpack upgrade from a couple episodes back are quality of life additions rather than new and different abilities. That's a good sign you are nearing full power in most games, then again, the fire pickaxe was good for just a couple puzzles thus far and so is primarily a damage upgrade and we got that something around ten episodes ago. I'm super impressed by the length of the game and if it ended after the next episode I would feel like I got my money's worth for sure. There was a lot here and I've enjoyed all of it. We're sitting at nearly ten hours of video time now, that's more than double the first Steamworld Dig in length. I was expecting, and would have been totally fine with another shorter game with some replayability, but I&F really expanded the scope between games and keep the quality and fun at high levels the entire time.
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Dec 21, 2019 17:46
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Nice work finishing the caves! I know you're not going to get everything on your first play, but do you wonder what secret areas you've gone right by in the main digging areas?
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Dec 22, 2019 04:00
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 So here we have the final Steamworld Dig 2 video. I think I've talked to death in both this thread and in the videos about how much I've enjoyed the ride. I was expecting a fun, brief little digging game like the first and got a 10 hour long adventure with a bunch of mechanics, upgrades and more plot than I could have ever expected. I know I didn't grab everything I could have in the LP, but I would have had to retread every cave, side area and mineshaft to pick up the last artifacts and cogs. I'm pretty happy with how the LP came out besides that. It's weird, I went in blind, which I something I don't normally do for any game, but between the mechanics carried over from the previous game and the use of tried and true platforming basics I didn't really ever feel lost or overwhelmed. The playtime score going Bronze at the end was more because I kept trying to find things that weren't there before the lantern upgrade and my need to gather every single resource available. I'm sure I could have blazed through with fewer upgrades and less side paths discovered, but I don't feel bad that I played the way I did for a second. I don't want to touch on the events of the video much beyond saying "I beat the game" in this post so everyone has a chance to watch it and decide if they liked the ending. I think it was really solid and tied up a lot of the loose ends the game left dangling for a while. The final boss made me feel like I forgot how to hold a controller, though, something about the pattern and the arena just made me feel like I was missing something and was tanking it out rather than playing with the skill and finesse I like to imagine I am known for. When it comes to what I may do next, I have to consider that. I keep saying I had to scrape together time to record the videos, but I put dozens to hundreds of hours into other games in the same time frame, so clearly I have the capacity to record things and get stuff done faster than this. It's weird, I felt like I needed to be in a different mindset to play this than most of the other things I played in that time, like I needed to be more maybe positive or focused or something than I am at other times. I can burn through a shooter while commenting without much trouble, but gently caress if I would even select Steamworld Dig 2 from my list o'games unless I felt like I could put my full attention to it. That said, I was thinking of maybe continuing the mining theme and doing Red Faction: Guerrilla, but I also wanted to do a doubleheader of early 2000's shooters and get Project: Snowblind and Shadow Ops: Red Mercury done at the same time. Steamworld Heist was also an option at one point, but I think that streams better than it plays due to the randomly generated nature of the levels. I have lots of ideas, I just need to make a decision.
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Dec 31, 2019 21:01
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