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Beta Testing Master Blog

  • kentona
  • 12/07/2009 05:42 PM
  • 13010 views
I currently have the following people helping me beta test:

captainregal
ChaosProductions
Izazie
Silently
Solitayre

(Previous testers were: Silently, Craze, Silviera and beakmanthegreat. Ephiam designed a lot of the bosses.)

I will track a master list of defects from here on out. It will be easier to manage if everyone can see what other people are reporting.

** UPDATED Dec 17th**

Still unresolved
-Just returned the signet to Reia and opened my alignment bar: Event Script referenced an event that does not exist

Completed
x- when you hire Birgette and are able to persuade her, she answers "300 is acceptable"... even if she was asking for, let's say, 4 800. You spend the right amount of money though. (2 400 in this case.) Just a detail. :)
x-A minor mistake that I found in the skill's screen of the Mind Freak: "Haste all" requires "Slow All" (it should be "Focus all".)
x-A town portal spell/scroll would be amazingly useful, and pretty easy to program.
x-After learning the skill mug, selecting its icon will provide steal gold's description instead.
x-After learning to use "advanced tools" my hero was unequipped of all gear but I was given no warning of this.
x-After you beat the Butcher, Horatio the Elder warns you that Albus wants to speak to you. But when you meet albus, he doesn't say anything special. (even if you choose to gossip.)
x-Fighting in water makes the battle backdrop look like it takes place outdoors
x-Grizzly can be learned right from the start despite not having enough ABL
x-I defeated the Shadow Demons and Pablo has claimed he would reward me for doing so, but after defeating them, he would not acknowledge they were dead.
x-I get that this game is obviously derivative of Diablo, but having the first four floors include the Butcher, the Skeleton King and a stolen sign is too overt a reference for my taste. Why steal verbatim when you don't have to?
x-It’s possible to sell the magic key. I can only guess this would have disastrous consequences
x-Julliet’s "Invisibility" spell causes the "focus" effect.
x-Julliet’s "Turn Undead" spell not only makes no sense, but it never seems to work either. Is it a joke skill? I note it seems to be a play on words. Players are going to assume it does something much different, and the spell always fails regardless.
x-Mara’s Shadowstorm spell only hits a single target but it claims to be a group spell
x-Maybe I was just really good at breaking the game, but difficulty pretty much vanished on the last few floors. Heroic ballad coupled with my party’s offense meant enemies really even got to act. Enemies probably need more debuffs/dispel abilities starting around floor 11.
x-On floor 4, the immobile skeletons seem to be sharing their pickpocket switch with other monsters (maybe amongst themselves too?), as I couldn't pickpocket any item from any of them.
x-Some (or all?) battles with magidrakes can keep muting the party even if there are no magidrakes remaining. One of the battles involves 2 magidrakes + 2 other monsters and triggered on floor 2 or 3 (maybe near water). Another battle involves 1 magidrake and 3 mushmooms, and is triggered on floor 4, by the mushmoom right below the stairs.
x-The "Mana Melody" ability is extremely broken. It needs a much higher MP cost. Right now, with an MP cost of 4, it amounts to free infinite mana for everyone, always.
x-The healslime on floor 2 still disappears if the leftmost healslime on floor 1 is defeated and foraged.
x-The test of Greed might be too obvious of a trap, I can't see anyone falling for it in its current state.
x-When opening a bag, if the bag gives me gold it seems to go into a loop and "open" again, giving me an additional item
x-Why put damage tiles in front of the shortcuts into the deeper areas of the dungeon? To punish the player for opening up shortcuts?
x-alignment wasn't changing
x-decipher mid-level scrolls leads to infinite loop if DECIPHER too low
x-top of the screen sometimes shows grass instead of rocks in swamp cave - IN BATTLES
x-treasure hunting skills were infite!
x-you can get trapped in prison: if you open the chest AFTER you bribed the warden, and the quit the menu screen, the door will be closed again, and you'll be unable to get out.
x- I'll get Arcana to stop talking about the tower once you are done with it.
x- The Dragon in the southern tower seems to not be not weak against sleep, contrary to what was written on the tablet. I used Lullaby twice, and my Hero's INT was 98.
x- The reward offered by Severus for the Icy gem Gon't match what Jive offers to get it. Moreover Severus don't sell anything as long as you still have the gem.
x- the chain of events after you find the "Journal of the Slain" seems to be a bit messy. Character A is supposed to send you to chara B, who sends you to chara C, etc. Maybe it's because I came back to town just after I found the Journal, and before I completely finished the level, but some of them didn't say anything more than what they usually did. Moreover they told me about a certain key to open a door that I didn't find yet. :P I will replay that part and make an exact report of the anomalies if you wish, but there is nothing there that can cause any problem to the player.
x-A lot of pieces of equipment could use more description. All robes have the same description and I don’t know what a Dagger of Beating does.
x-A scroll merchant in town would be nice as well. (Albus?)
x-All of the Animangus skills that he learns for the shape shifters don't work. For example the dragon skill icebreath shows up in the normal Animangus's skill selection but he can't use it. And when you shift to dragon mode it is not selectable at all. This is the same for Werewolf and BeBear.
x-Chow Yun’s Meditate ability can be used to fully heal himself on the map
x-Grizzly & uncurse de-equips the Grizzly's weapons!
x-I see now that the Mind Freak has a town portal spell. Having this spell in scroll form, or from an ally, would be nice though.
x-Icy gem quest
x-If the 1/2 menus are opened during the fade out or the beginning cutscene, the selector can be the main character until either of those menu is reopened and closed properly.
x-If the 1/2/3 menus are opened during the cutscene, the game can crash by not being able to find some event. The main character can also become the selector, but with the 1/2/3/4/5 and main menus locked. Message boxes also seem to be transparent. There aren't any encounters on the overworld either (I walked in circles for a while and even walked all the way to the Z-something tower without encountering enemies).
x-In the Caverns I think the phasing was turned on making it so my character was able to walk on everything. I looked in the editor and could not find where this happened. To fix it for me in my game I made a new event to turn it off. And made it parallel process in Town.
x-Kinglsey good ending charset
x-Mara and wands
x-Mara's special Relic
x-The menu can also be opened. I found out the main character is named Zack and the red box is named Selector like this.
x-The mimic on floor 4 still tells me I "Stole X Gold."
x-Zaldach final battle options
x-damaged items repaired?
x-darker grey font color
x-ending in general
x-neutral ending?
x-purchase scrolls
x-repair items
x-test animagus special skills for werebear/wolf/dragon - feed?
x-test auto decipher scrolls
x-town portal

Nothing being done about it
z- this one is not a bug, just a remark. As the items in the chest and bags are completely random, it's so tempting, easy and convenient to reset your game until you get what you want...what doesn't take long. It's looks a bit too much like cheating...though I don't know if something can be done about it.
z-After learning to use Master tools, my rogue could equip battleaxes. This was intentional!
z-It seems pickpocketing only reduces your allignment if you get caught? Robbing villagers should probably always reduce allignment. Robbing monsters should be fine though. It's only wrong if you get caught!
z-Mara’s magic spells have absurdly low MP costs considering how much damage they do. I'd give most of her spells a much higher MP cost even considering her unique relic. I think I'll tweak her relic instead
z-The test of envy, however, is awesome. Perhaps the type of door should be random, however.
z-There doesn't seem to be many perks to being good/evil. Being really good doesn't seem to confer many benefits over just being sort of good. Aside from hirelings, only Pablo and Arcana even seem to care. You sometimes get different conversation options. I can add more, I suppose, but it is not high on the priority list
z-config? Joy2Key
z-difficulty level I am considering creating an Expert mode by adding random encounters. The biggest issue will be EXP overloading though - you'd get a ton of EXP.
z-leveling up makes you a sitting duck to any nearby monsters. You cannot move while watching the level up message but monsters can and will surround you while it is happening. Is there any way of working around this? Umm, not really. I don't have any slick solutions to this problem. Perhaps make leveling up require user input? Like, after level up you have to hit 6 or something to apply it.
z- it should be good to make the stamina bar disappear from the screen when you don't need it anymore, even if it's not empty (for the time being, you have to wait till it has emptied and refilled again, what can take ages due to the lagging.)
z-After choosing a character, the ability and OOBS menus can be opened out of order. Opening the OOBS menu first will make the screen fade out without having to open the ability menu.
z-By the way, Stamina seems to increase only by 1, even Higgins tells the Hero that he will raise it by more.
z-LFX contest postponed to Release Something! Day IX
z-Some kind of indicator of what floor you are currently on would be nice. I completely lost track after the floor with the dark maze. maybe in v1.1
z-awareness on basins maybe in v1.1
z-cursed items uncursed? Naw - cursed items are meant to tempt you.
z-list of status effects maybe in v1.1
z-move small medals maybe in v1.1
z-stamina bar doesn't disappear. Ugh. It does eventually if you run/stop enough
z-when you ask Pablo to remove a curse, the whole party is completely unequipped, and not only the chara who used the cursed item. I changed the wording Pablo uses so this is more obvious. Doing individual items per individal party member is just too tedious at this point

Posts

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In my tests I choose the Elementalist, with the reasoning that if the weakest (physically) class can make it through the game, anyone can.

I maxed out at level 30 around the 14th or 15th floor.

My party (for the most part) consisted of Cristo (for healing), Birgette (for damage and elemental attacks) and a summoned Fire Elemental.
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
Hm. I'm almost glad I've given it a day or too.

I'll probably focus on balancing and builds more than mechanical flaws, off-hand.
A minor mistake that I found in the skill's screen of the Mind Freak:
"Haste all" requires "Slow All" (it should be "Focus all".)
I didn't check all the skills panels though...

When opening a bag, if the bag gives me gold it seems to go into a loop and "open" again, giving me an additional item
Something similar happened 3 or 4 times, but only with items (chests or bags) stolen by the Rogue. For example, he stole only one bag, but using the 4 key opened the Bag AND a Magic Bag.

I don't know if it was intended, but when you ask Pablo to remove a curse, the whole party is completely unequipped, and not only the chara who used the cursed item.
It doesn't seem to depend on who is the cursed one, or what's his rank, but here is the team, in case it could help:
Rogue - Healer - Illusionist - Druid. (in that order.)

By the way, Thom still can't be found in my game with the priest so I can't complete the team. Cristo is the only available character remaining, and I see no point having two healers in my team.
My Rogue team has to face the Butcher, and the only hireling I could get is the tank.
Is it intentional, or is it a bug?
After you beat the Butcher, Horatio the Elder warns you that Albus wants to speak to you. But when you meet albus, he doesn't say anything special. (even if you choose to gossip.)
I don't think that I did anything special. Did any one of you encounter the same problem?
The people that show up at the inn is random. The randomness resets every time that you enter the Pit. If you are looking for someone in particular try going into the pit and coming right back out.

I will check out the Albus thing. I think that maybe my switches are activating in the correct order.
The randomness resets every time that you enter the Pit

Then I must have been particularly unlucky, because my Rogue was able to find Birgette and Chow-yun only after defeating the Butcher!
Anyway, it works for the Priest, so np there. Thanks! 8)

About reputation: my alignment is "good", the arrow is pointing at the second line above "neutra!"
I tried to lower it. It took me 10 times to go down to neutral, but only 2 times to lower it from "neutral" to the second graduation below. Is it regular?
The alignment page might be wonky. I will have to look into it. However, if you press F9 (if you've opened the game in the editor) and check out the 3rd or 4th page of variables there will be a value like "hero_alignment". 0 is neutral, 50 is very good, and -50 is very evil. I think the arrow moves in increments of 10 on the alignment screen.
I think that I will focus on the Light Side of the Force for now... and let my beta-tester mates fiddle with the game editor! :P
So I received some great feedback already from my testers and will be fixing the defects and implementing some of the suggestions. I've updated the master list.

One thing that a previous tester mentioned (Silently maybe?) was that Persuade was underutilized. I was thinking of implementing a system for bosses in which you might be able to "persuade" them to make battles easier. Like, they'd self-inflict damage or a status effect at the start of a battle or refrain from using a certain skill. Thoughts?
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
I wouldn't use it for bosses, it becomes pretty overpowered that way. Use it more for rebates on shops or something.
Solitayre
Circumstance penalty for being the bard.
18257
I think Persuasion is fine personally, especially since it's one of the few skills you can't just use Bash to undermine.
I think that the persuasion is used plenty. Maybe its just me.
Anyway almost finished the game. I'll post all the bugs ect.. I find as soon as I am done.
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
I'm a bit late to the party but hey.

Gave the menus and the first floor a thorough sweep as a Mindfreak. I'll get back to it when it's daylight - the bright-on-black is kinda paining at 2 AM. :/
Alright I have finished the game with the Animangus Class. Party Included Lars, Chow-Yun, and the Grizzly Bear.
I will now list all the bugs I found and or have not discussed earlier.

You can continuously get the Treasure Hunters, Treasure Hunting Training for free. This makes the a oobs completely worthless add on to the player. After a few training sessions I had all the important skills higher that you would even need them. Making it so you have to pay for said training or making it so you can only do it once would be better.

All of the Animangus skills that he learns for the shape shifters don't work. For example the dragon skill icebreath shows up in the normal Animangus's skill selection but he can't use it. And when you shift to dragon mode it is not selectable at all. This is the same for Werewolf and BeBear.

In the Caverns I think the phasing was turned on making it so my character was able to walk on everything. I looked in the editor and could not find where this happened. To fix it for me in my game I made a new event to turn it off. And made it parallel process in Town.

Also their really does need to be a Town Portal scroll or something. It broke what was most of the time a ridiculously fun experience. I will defiantly play the game another time with a different class if that is implemented.

Also any chance for a sequel? In Rpg Maker VX Perhaps?
Yeah, I fixed the OOBS training issue. It was only supposed to be a one-time thing but I didn't set the correct switch!

I will fix the Animagus skills, too. I must have broke it with an earlier change in the game.

Did anyone else get phasing on in the Caverns or elsewhere in the game? I didn't encounter that. If more people encountered it it will help to pinpoint the source.
Great game, adding to the bug list:

I assume the cost of random special weapons you can buy from the guy at the counter just outside of the temple is a function of how far one has gotten in the dungeon. At the beginning of the game, special items at his counter cost ZERO (with a humorous option to bargain him down to zero). I outfitted my whole starting party in this fashion.
Also, I gained a lot of evil points with no noticeable change in my alignment meter. I know it was effective because I recruited evil-specific allies, but the arrow seemed stuck on neutral no matter how many times I asked the smuggler to decrease my rep.
The alignment page doesn't refresh in v0.8 and the special item merchant has been fixed!
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