Demigod v1.2 has passed what we call our tech QA and is now in consumer QA (i.e. compatibility and such).

Here’s a partial list of what’s in this build:

Notable Bug Fixes:

· Fixes a serious desync that could potentially resolve a number of problem cases in MP.

Citadel Upgrades

• Graveyard Citadel Upgrade: Increased bonus from 10/20/40% to 15/30/50%

Favor Item Changes:

• 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

New favor items:

                Spirit of the Fallen: Assassin only

                5000 Favor Points

                1000 Health

                8 Health Per Second

                Haste Anklet: Assassin only

                5000 Favor Points

                17% Increased Movement Speed

                Pendant of Prescience: Generals only

                5000 Favor Points

                15% Dodge

                20% Minion Dodge

                Tome of Champions: Generals Only

                5000 Favor Points

                800 Health

                5 Health Per Second

                150 Minion Health

Items:

• Hex Scroll: Reduced cost from 500 to 250
• Capture Lock: Increased cast time from 1 to 2 seconds
• Combat Health and Mana Potions unchanged – we were afraid to tweak this one
• Duelist Cuirass: Reduced cost from 3000 to 2500
• 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

Game Mechanics:

• Dodge Cap increased from 30% to 40%

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.

I’ll have a more complete list shortly.

Commenting is enabled to allow people to complain about the balancing since you can blame me for it. I read through the comments and various threads and compiled a list of requested changes along with my own experiences from playing.  So you can see a lot of things have been made less expensive. The new favor items are largely just “upgrades” (requiring a lot more favor points) to the existing ones. I tried to request items that could be realistically added.  So in other words, don’t flame GPG. Flame Brad (me).

The modding is going to become a big deal I believe as I am hoping we will be able to have our own mods that players will be able to distribute here on the game site or that we’ll eventually bundle with the game if they’re popular enough.

Demigod isn't perfect of course. No game is.  I have a laundry list of things I want to see changed and with the upcoming modding, I am hoping to see those changes happen.

That said, let me tell you why I think Demigod is the best new strategy game of 2009.

1. It has the best game mechanics of any RTS of 2009.  The balance between citadel upgrades, flags, and personal items are just wonderful.

2. The fact that it is really easy to learn how to play but that a well coordinated team can own 3 experts who don't play well together.

3. The multiple ways that most of the Demigods can play.

4. It's beautiful. I can zoom out and see the whole arena or I can zoom in and see stunning graphics. Demigod is that rare game that looks terrific but whose engine is highly practical too.

5. Sheer polish.  If you have a moderate system that plays fine today, fear not, the game looks incredible at 2500x1600 thus it won't get dated soon.

6. It's continuing to get better.  If you read the forum posts, you sometimes forget that the game has only been out about 6 months and has received continual updates throughout its life with more updates in the works. It ain't going anywhere.

Just some quick thoughts on the matter.

With any luck, this weekend I'll have games up that you guys will be able to join and see the new demigods in action.

Look for "Frogboy 3 vs. 3" on the game list starting this weekend (or possibly Thursday depending on my schedule).

Great article today at Town Hall.

“4 reasons the American Dream will be over unless we act”

Great quote:

"In 1985, just 16.5% of filers paid no income tax." Today, "roughly 120 million Americans – 40 percent of the U.S. population – are outside of the federal income tax system."

Meanwhile, the top 50% of income earners pay 97% percent of the income taxes. "In 1945, 41.9 workers supported each (Social Security recipient), while todayonly 3.3 workers support each retiree." That number will continue to shrink.

In other words, we're developing into a two-tiered society. Some people like to think of it as the "haves" and "have nots." However, it would be more apt to describe it as the people who pay the bills and the people who live off of the fruits of their labor.

But don’t forget, if you object to the unlimited looting of your labor, you’re just selfish and greedy.

I was too lazy to do a clean install of Windows 7 on my Thinkpad T400.  I didn’t want to monkey arounhd with reinstalling all my software.  In hindsight, I probably would have been better off doing so as there’s so much crud on my system sucking away its life that I am regretting my decision not to just start from scratch.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091103121605.htm

So it increasingly looks like sugar is really really bad for you – at least in the quanitites that the typical American now consumes.

I consume more than my share of sugar and I hate to sound unconcerned about my own health but you know, I might lose some years of life becaue of my love of sugar but I’d rather have sugar than a life lacking in sweetness.

I’ve always wanted to do this but never had the opportunity to try it out since schedules are usually too tight for it.  But would anyone here be interested in playing a game of Elemental…via pen and paper…over the Internet through a series of posts?

I would need 5 volunteers who are in the beta, are active players and would have enough time actually play a game back and forth online (almost like PBEM).  We’d set up a simplified rule set but the idea would be to work through game mechanics and decide what is, and isn’t fun.

I would be your DM for the game.  Respond here if you’re interested, have the beta, and have time to play.