Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return Beta 0.021
Added 2021-07-20 18:44:40 +0000 UTCFor feedback we have a dedicated channel on the Discord called #sunrider4 , this can be found under the category of 'Testing Feedback'. You will need the Patreon server role in order to see this channel so if you haven't already remember to link your Patreon account to your Discord . If you're not a fan of Discord then you're welcome to also comment via this post.
The URL for the Discord is: https://discord.gg/lis .
Please don't record or stream the build for entertainment purposes or for making social media posts, limited video clips can be submitted as part of feedback and bug reports. These builds are intended for personal use of the Patreon backer who qualifies to access this post and should also not be redistributed.
If you want to skip to the end of the current Tydaria Exile chapter you can now do so using the 'enter' key on the main menu.
New
- 1 New Main Story Battle - Recruit Ava .
- 1 New Side Story Battle - Great Emu War .
Balances
- Adjustments to enemy AI (it is now more defensively originated but further adjustments are currently planned).
- The starting currency that featured in prior betas has now been removed, the player will now start at 0. If the player skips the Tydaria Exile chapter they will not get any of the currency that would have been achievable here.
- Flier drones now deal a consistent 300 damage base (before mitigation - eg. shield/armour) and split damage equally between confirmed units within the radius.
Fixes
- Additional fail-safes are now implemented to prevent SDK crashes during cut scenes.
- Additional adjustments have been made to the save system to prevent a save corruption that would soft lock the current session.
- An exploit that could duplicate missions (and by extension their rewards) has been patched out.
- An exploit that allowed for upgrades to be purchased for free has been patched out.
- An exploit that allowed for Icari to use her melee attack on enemy ships has been patched out.
- The formula for how flier drones calculate damage has been adjusted to prevent a scenario where the damage would get multiplied rather than divided.
- Fixed inconsistencies in the R&D UI that would cause for upgrade costs to be hidden.
- Using Claude's Gravity Gun on missiles and torpedoes will no longer crash the game.
- The formula for Full Forward has been adjusted to remove values being returned to a decimal point.
- A scenario where completing side missions would lead to the player being redirected to the main menu has been fixed.
- Using the 'f' character in save files will no longer cause full screen mode to be enabled.
- Selecting close in the galaxy map will no longer pause the game.
- The remaining logged entries of typos have been reviewed and adjusted if appropriate.
- A number of additional undocumented fixes have been rolled out to address historic beta reports, as this has had an adverse effect on internal documentation regarding fix status we're currently re-examining these prior cases but we would encourage prior reports to be made again if you find them persisting in the current version.
On the Radar / Known Issues
- During the second Cosette battle in the Tydaria chapter, the player's turn music will not play.
- A visual bug that can occur during a nude moment of Lynn.
- Lynn being able to deploy more flier drones while her current lot are already in motion (this allows for damage that would have been lost in the current distribution to be reassigned giving the next set of flier drones a higher base damage).
- When a bad end is triggered there is no Claude dialogue if the player's affection level is high enough, this is not yet properly implemented despite in game prompts.
Download Link
As the game, particularly at the stage of the betas won't be developed in such a way that ensure older beta saves and configuration will be compatible with the newer versions, it is highly advisable to clear your local appdata folder for the game with each new version. These are; the save folder, the init.ini file and the seen.txt file .
You can find each of these in '\AppData\Local\Sunrider_4_The_Captains_Return' .
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sq63mcsdqby4p2z/Sunrider%204%20The%20Captains%20Return%200201.zip?dl=0
Comments
Ok finally found the time to give this one a try. I hadn’t had a chance to try any since the first. Once again, the story is wonderful, and the art is amazing. The music still gives me chills. Before I get into the meat of my review, I'll point out a few of the small things I noticed. First, in the tutorial space battle, if you do not hit the waypoint, you can move around until you either go off the map to surrender or are blown up when they catch you. Seems like this is something that should either be a forced move, or guided correction if your first move doesn’t result in the ship entering the waypoint. The term "court marshal" is used a few times in the conversation with Ava. Given the context, the correct term is "court martial", as that is a military trial, while "marshal" is a rank used by some militaries. Now to get to the big thing, the space battles. I mentioned this in a comment after my playthrough of the initial beta release, but please please PLEASE make inertia something that doesn’t exist in lower difficulty settings or can be turned on and off as a configuration item. I am telling you this now, if it remains as is you will lose a lot of players and end up with many negative reviews for a game that will otherwise be phenomenal, leading to more players being unlikely to purchase the game. I can honestly say that if I were not fully invested in this franchise and was presented with this as my first introduction, I'd quit and not come back. This might be fun for some who are very interested in that format of gameplay but given the departure from and added complexity over the Mask of Arcadius combat system, and the complete lack of space warfare in Liberation Day, I don't think this is going to go over well for a lot of the fanbase. I couldn't even make it through the entire beta tonight as I grew increasingly tired of the space battles and threw up my hands to come write this review after another defeat while trying to escape Cera after picking up Ava. Contributing to the inertia problem I mentioned, there are a few items which I find to adversely affect the space gameplay too. 1. After movement, you are automatically in Rotate mode, which has resulted in too many of my units facing the wrong way once I go to choose the next attack (they end up facing the weapon selection box) and ruin my attack plans since rotation back to the way I was initially facing seems to eat up so much EN. Either no mode should be selected upon completion of a move or clicking within the action box shouldn’t count as a click for activating rotation. 2. Countering inertia. For ryders, which are supposed to be highly maneuverable mecha-like fighter jets, the fact it takes multiple moves to slow down momentum and change direction just doesn’t make much sense. Even if it used up 100 EN to just stop and face in a desired direction that went against the inertia, that is better than being forced to use calculated moves in a different direction. 3. Collisions. An annoying effect of inertia but seem to happen even after you've supposedly altered trajectory too often. 4. Targeting seems severely different in this versus Mask of Arcadius. You must be comically close to be in range for many of the attack types to have any real chance of hitting. In combination with the above 3 issues, that can be a real challenge and several of my units pretty much have had 0 luck hitting anything. 5. If any of the above isn’t supposed to be true, then I think there is a lack of intuitive controls and tutorial than. I find far too much of my time in space battles is spent trying to face the right way or keep from colliding. It’s just not fun for me, and I suspect that will be true for a lot of people whose love for Sunrider is rooted in its story, music and art. In fact, given the amount of time I spent overall tonight in space battles, it really seemed like it accounted for most of my playtime, and for me that is a problem since it really is a very small part of what I like about the series. Given that it seems like you can’t use saves between beta releases, the prospect of starting all over and having to go through the space battles again really gives me pause as to whether I want to do the next beta or not, or even play the finished game until a story focused mode is added like in Sunrider Academy. And it really pains me to say that since I've been a Patreon supporter for over 5 years now ever since I finished Liberation Day and needed to support you so I could be sure to get the next chapter.
MaraviaX
2021-08-05 04:14:30 +0000 UTCNot able to finish Ava's recruitment due to this error every time the battle loaded. ___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Alarm Event for alarm 2 for object obj_chap2_battle3: Variable obj_sprite_shi.costume(100117, -2147483648) not set before reading it. at gml_Script_create_shadow ############################################################################################ gml_Script_create_shadow (line -1) gml_Script_scr_vnclick gml_Object_obj_chap2_battle3_Alarm_2
Washington
2021-08-01 03:27:14 +0000 UTCI wasn't able to finish the Ava recruitment mission because every time the battle loaded I got this error. ___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Alarm Event for alarm 2 for object obj_chap2_battle3: Variable obj_sprite_shi.costume(100117, -2147483648) not set before reading it. at gml_Script_create_shadow ############################################################################################ gml_Script_create_shadow (line -1) gml_Script_scr_vnclick gml_Object_obj_chap2_battle3_Alarm_2 I also encountered a bug where the option to start the mission disappeared, but that was fixed by reloading the save.
DarkNightMike
2021-07-29 23:41:43 +0000 UTCAn error. The first battle against Cosette. The Pirate Grunt attempts to shoot down Asaga's rockets. ___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ ERROR in action number 1 of Alarm Event for alarm 0 for object obj_unit: Unable to find instance for object index 100330 at gml_Script_ai_bomber ############################################################################################ gml_Script_ai_bomber (line -1) gml_Script_ai_settype gml_Object_obj_unit_Alarm_0 A note about the plot. When Kayto asks Sola about Crow Harbor, she reveals information about Crow's origin and Sola's father. Practically nothing more. But Sola fought against him and should know his strategy, tactics and battle capabilities Crow Harbor's ships and riders. This is vital information, absolutely ignoring by Kayto. Rather weird for a military man.
Behemoth
2021-07-24 06:56:36 +0000 UTCthis is the one game I am supporting that I need to see to completion, it would haunt me if it doesn't reach a conclusion.
RadicalWinter
2021-07-22 03:08:09 +0000 UTC
