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The rope winds from the clouds like the long-dried trail of a giant's tear. It whips in the arid wind, down the birdless sky, and into the open mouth of the ravine that splits the dead land. Down and down it goes, the sky darkening to a pinpoint of light above it. This is the sky that Ivy knows.

Ivy and her sister, Mint, peer further into the ravine. It has been one day since their father stopped moving. A dandelion sprouts from the parched earth like hands clasped together in prayer. It is the only living thing they've seen in this dead world. A growl echoes off the cliff walls. Maybe not the only thing.

Sometimes Ivy dreams of a sky that covers everything. When she awakes, she hates herself for still having the dreams of a child. She's fourteen, now, her sister twelve. The rope stretches up above them, up, up, up, further than young eyes can see.

Features:
-Character-centric storyline
-50+ hours of gameplay
-Challenging boss battles
-Original music
-Different equipment sets that modify the ways characters play
-A crafting system featuring over 100 pieces of unique equipment
-LOTS of side quests
-Puzzles that spice up dungeon design
-Recruit an odd assortment of townspeople and pass legislation to develop your own village
-Raise a pig to compete in the Pig Arena and win prizes
-New game+ feature that includes multiple bonus endings--a mechanic I blatantly stole from Chrono Trigger

Latest Blog

Major Update

I've been hinting here and there about wanting to update A Very Long Rope, and I finally got off my ass and did it. I made quite a few changes, and I'll list them below, but I want to talk about the most major one in depth. When I made A Very Long Rope, my goal was to make a game with a strong story, and a lot of the other aspects got brushed aside. This was going to be my way to segue into the community and hopefully find some other people interested in working together. Since then, I've shifted my perspective and focused more on things like design and aesthetics, which this game doesn't really care much about, unfortunately.

So, the update. The chief annoyance I've been hearing about A Very Long Rope is the dungeon design--mainly, levels are way too big, and the random encounters serve to make things worse. So, this update adds an item to your inventory that toggles enemy encounters. This item was available in the game before, but the only way to get it was to beat the game (players who have done this know I'm talking about the saecelium shield). Now, this item is given to the player at the very beginning, meaning you don't have to fight a single random encounter anymore.

Of course, since bosses exist, you'll still need to gain experience. In order to incentivize getting a good amount of experience before each boss, I've made several treasure chests need a currency called "victory points" in order to open them. Basically, you get a single victory point for every enemy you defeat in a battle (other than bosses). Victory points are dependent based on the dungeon, so the ones you earn in the first dungeon will only work in that dungeon. The cost of opening chests is higher depending on what's inside the chest, so you might need to spend between 2-6 points in order to open each of these special chests.

I've also doubled the experience, gold, and item drops from monsters. The net effect here is that if you open every single locked chest, you'll end up fighting about half of the encounters that you would have if you just left random encounters on. I did a full playthrough and felt that these locked chests provided short-term goals that kept me more interested while exploring; I hope they do that for you, too!

Here's the full list of changes:

-Reduced crit damage from triple to double
-Stat cap increased to 9999 (will mainly affect buff stacking)
-Berserk no longer sucks
-One-touch Sprint
-First agricultural upgrade requires three people instead of five.
-Escape rate now a flat 60%
-Added a way to get out of the Goddess Tower if you don't have a portable transceiver
-Fixed a few typos/graphical glitches/small things I don't remember
-Rare drop rates have been increased significantly
-Gold/XP/Drop Rates doubled
-Findable equipment that could be used in recipes is now sold as recipes in your town along with the regular recipes.
-Saecelium Shield now added at the beginning of the game. Players can use their old data and find a Saeclium Shield in a number of places within a blue chest (such as the entrance to your town, on the world map, or next to the save point in Old Town); the blue chests will disappear upon opening one.
-Most chests are now "locked." Gain Victory Points from defeating random mobs in a dungeon to open locked chests. Victory Points are specific to each dungeon.
-Locked chests are weighted based on how good the item is. 2 VP is a potion, 3 VP is gold, a good potion, or monster mats, 4 VP are great potions and large sums of gold, 5 VP are stat-boosting items or rare monster mats, 6 VP are equipment.
-Chests that aren't near easy grinding spots (e.g. chests in certain puzzles, chests in towns) will never be locked. Several other random chests in dungeons will also not be locked.
-Arena fights now give experience
-Can now use saecelium shield during soul tear scenes
-Only need to find the wolf four times instead of nine (what was I thinking?!) in Marina's soul tear scene.


That's it! Oh, and make sure to subscribe to my new project: Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.
  • Completed
  • Housekeeping
  • RPG Maker VX
  • RPG
  • 11/26/2013 04:56 PM
  • 05/29/2023 03:05 PM
  • 12/01/2013
  • 525427
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  • 5071

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If you can buy D-level crafting stuff, then you can upgrade them up to S, so then the struggle becomes, "Why do I have to go through these hoops when you could just have him sell every monster mat?"

author=PhongVan100
beside what is shop buy marital ex buy xxx e d b a s?


You can't buy those; you have to win them from random encounters. They were put in the game as a means to make random battles feel a bit more rewarding, so they're just tied to those battles.

I'll try to whip up a recruitment guide today. I've kept terrible notes about that, so there might be a few gaps that need to be filled.
author=PhongVan100
beside what is shop buy marital ex buy xxx e d b a s?

... *faceplam*? I get it now! Explanation:

author=PhongVan100
beside what is shop buy marital ex buy xxx e d b a s?

He means "What is the shop to buy materials, XXX D,C,B,A & S?" (Where the XXX is like XXX-holic, a blank signifier, like ???... is Japanese?...)


author=Housekeeping
I'll try to whip up a recruitment guide today. I've kept terrible notes about that, so there might be a few gaps that need to be filled.

Cool!
I put up a page! If anything else belongs on that page, let me know. I might also have forgotten a character in the recruitment guide, so, if I did, make sure to tell me.

@Malandy: I have to read essays from ESL students pretty frequently, so I feel like I have a secret decoder ring inside my brain sometimes, haha.
in the tower of god , iam beat god , later have 6 : stats , star , stars, treee , sheep , chicken.. what is about this ?
That's a tough one; the logic behind the puzzle is that it mirrors the first puzzle in that dungeon and matches the days of the journey with images that represent the creation story in Genesis. Here's the solution (and I'll add this to the guide):


Starting in the upper right and going clockwise: Tree, light, sheep, stars, statue, chicken.
thanks housekeeping very much , i am beat boss in there, i am have question : you can update new boss , new dungeon make game wonderful , beside game hards is find list weaphon craff , can update list where is find weapon make easier
So...

I just re-re-replayed the Avishun prison break-in...

How hard would it have been to get Rose out, at that point in time?

How often do they check her cell?

However, even if they break her out, I really can't find anywhere for her to go that'll be safe, other than the Surface, and living down there might actually be worse than prison. Unless, Rose is a plant mage or something, and can make hideouts, like the one in Mossvine Forest, really quickly? And that's assuming that Rose and/or Raccoon can infer that Yvette is running away and that they can enlist her help...

Oh! Is that cabin the one that was in Mag's Soul Tear?

Also, did Lief ever get help from Rose, in regards to Yvette? Or is he all "I will not speak to Heretics!"?


How distinctive is Rose's appearance?
@Phong: Glad you enjoyed it! I'm pretty much done with the game in its current state; I'm finally content with the gameplay (I'd like it to be better, honestly, but I can't sink the time it would take to completely overhaul it), so I'm not going to add new content. Griff can tell you where you have missing treasures, so you can find missing weapons that way (or you can just craft the recipes for them that Genghis sells now). If you're talking about the crafting materials, Emil gives hints as to where the hard-to-find stuff is, Giacomo sells the lower-level rare materials, and the monster materials tend to follow the same logic, e.g. slimy looking things will normally drop binding gels, warriors will drop victory medals, flying things will drop feathers, fishy things drop fish scales, etc.

@Malandy:

They could have gotten her out pretty easily (Yvette would have helped her in a heartbeat, and she was the only one to run into the kids). The manhunt for Rose would have been pretty extensive, though, and, yeah, short of going to the surface, there'd be no real place for her to hide. Rose and Clare are friends, so Rose is treated fairly well for a prisoner; that's why her cell is so big and gets enough natural light to grow plants.

No, those two cabins are different.

Leif wouldn't have talked to Rose out of obligation.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking regarding Rose's appearance. If you're thinking about her "hiding in plain sight," then, yeah, I guess she's close enough to other Lydians in appearance to possibly do that. There'd still be a massive manhunt for her, though, so it would be a tense life.
material i am have , but i am dont where is find .
ex : spear : where is lance ?
2 hand sword : in reicipes furious wolf : where is lock-on taget?
i am find all city i am dont find them
The lance can be made from a recipe that you buy in Silver Spring. The lock-on target is in Solomon's Trail (the dungeon you can enter in Solomon's Furrow). It's in the second room that you can speed up/slow down.
author=Housekeeping
I'm not sure I understand what you're asking regarding Rose's appearance. If you're thinking about her "hiding in plain sight," then, yeah, I guess she's close enough to other Lydians in appearance to possibly do that. There'd still be a massive manhunt for her, though, so it would be a tense life.


Yeah, that's what I meant... Thanks!

Does anyone have surnames, other than Mr.Coriligano (sic?)
I haven't attributed any to them, but you can assume that everyone has one, i.e. it's normal to have a surname in the game's world. Raccoon wouldn't have one, though. Or Oliver.
Since Mint isn't being as helpful as I'd hoped, but is still funny, which is great! ... I'm gonna ask you, Housekeeping... "What Hogwarts House would everyone be sorted in?" Or is this one of those too off-topic, or 'Death of the Author' things?

If so, then I'm sorry...

Or is it obvious and I'm not seeing it? Incomplete Guesses below... (I'm literally trying to put everyone that's got a portrait... into a House.)

Rutger is obviously a Ambitious Slytherin... How did I not realize that...

Young Ivy's a Brave Gryffindor...

Old Ivy... Dunno? Still a Gryffindor, but more jaded than her younger self?

Mint... Self-Sacrificing Gryffindor or a Kind and Fair Hufflepuff?

Raccoon... Dunno...

Young Yvette... Dunno...

Lief: Brave Gryffindor

Queen Claire: Unafraid of Toil Hufflepuff?

Queen Yvette: Ditto...

Solomon: Scientist Ravenclaw...

Switch and Gunther: Scientist Ravenclaws...

Mag: ...?

Prim: Self-Sacrificing Gryffindor

Griff: ...?

Ruby: ...?

Brooke: ...?

Holiday: ...? Rebellious Slytherin?


@Malandy: To tell you the truth, I'm only passingly familiar with the Harry Potter house system, so you'd probably be better at categorizing them than me, haha.
Hello, just noticed your update. Can I transfer the save file from the previous version? My party was Rutger, Gainer, Ivy and Oliver. The mission was finding Ivy.
author=Malandy
Since Mint isn't being as helpful as I'd hoped, but is still funny, which is great! ... I'm gonna ask you, Housekeeping... "What Hogwarts House would everyone be sorted in?" Or is this one of those too off-topic, or 'Death of the Author' things?

I think the heroes would all be Gryffindor, since Gryffindor's virtues are basically just a list of protagonist traits (except for Lief, who is obviously Hufflepuff). The only possible exception is Ivy since she's not very proactive, but she seems too asocial to be Hufflepuff and doesn't fit the other two at all.

Come to think about it, Gebhart might be Gryffindor. Self-righteousness, bravery, strength, virtuosity, steadfastness... He ticks all the boxes, really.

And Slytherin is all about how ambition is so very, very evil, so I think


Raccoon

would technically fit into it, since he's one of the most proactive characters. Given his whole schtick is being inhuman and empty, though, he probably wouldn't fit into any.

But we're ignoring the real question, which is what their gemsonas would be
author=suplexedatrain
Hello, just noticed your update. Can I transfer the save file from the previous version? My party was Rutger, Gainer, Ivy and Oliver. The mission was finding Ivy.


Yes, you can move your save file over. Just copy and paste it into the same directory.
Oh! Congrats on this being a Hidden Gem!

Hmm... Just realized... there are no toilets... I think... Based on how much detail you put everywhere else, I guess it's 'cause there's no toilet resources?


What did Silvia and Solomon name their kid? Or did they not think of a name yet?

How is MUB-5 piloted? Do you use the God's Eye platform to pilot it? Or is there some room/section that we don't see, perhaps connected to the rest of the place through the roof of MUB-5 somehow? (We never see all of the roof... Huh.)
Thanks!

Yeah, there's no toilets in the RTP.

Sylvia was just pregnant, so they hadn't thought of a name yet. I would have included it if they had.

I probably should have put a control room in MUB-5 now that you mention it; just assume there's one that the players don't access. I did include a room in Solomon's Trail with a bunch of crystals floating in place that was supposed to represent the saecelium configuration that was keeping the continent floating, though. MUB-5's would have looked similar to that.