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Demo released!
Daedron- 04/30/2014 08:39 PM
- 5023 views
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urano23
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CloseWhen I finish the demo I will give you my thoughts. Up until now it's awesome, the gameplay is interesting and unique. I really like it.
Oh, and that intro was AMAZING.
Oh, and that intro was AMAZING.
Downloading now, not sure I'm going to be able to help re playing on older PC's since mine is less than a year old, but if there is lag I'll let you know, (and anything else, of course). Though I should be honest and tell you if the save system is restrictive I'm probably not going to like it. I'm a save anywhere type of player simply because I don't have hours to dedicate to a game at a time and I dislike having to find a crystal, or book, or exit to the world map in order to save. Especially if it means I have to back track to do it. Given the nature of your stamina system from your description that may end up being an issue simply because if I have to exit the game due to real life (sorry, I know dirty word), I'm going to sacrifice that stamina in order to get out of a dungeon, or sacrifice whatever progress I've made because I can't save before I exit the game. However I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me play it first :).
Ok, so I've only played up to the start of day 3. That RL thing getting in the way again, but I gave myself an additional 15 minutes to write some feedback.
So I like the intro, it gives a great feeling of dread and expectation, however it seems to be an odd mix of 'movie' with no interaction and dialogue where the player is expected to forward the action. Since you can't actually do anything with the characters in the intro perhaps making it all 'movie' would be a better option.
The shadow effects in the town are mismatched. The buildings are at 90 degrees and the trees/signs/well etc are at 45 degrees. It's like the place has a binary star, but that wouldn't work either since then there would be double shadows. The residential area is the best example of it, look at the shadow of the church tower compared to the shadow on the well.
In the Bounty Hunter HQ you can walk right through the beds.
Whilst I get that killing each boss gets a big reward, that chest is crazy. It's twice the height of the characters and about 5 times as long, but most importantly it's very pixilated. I know it's because the graphic for the chest is low resolution, but making that huge just looks out of place and clunky. I'd pick a different chest option, perhaps recolour one of the standard ones - I don't think I've ever seen a purple chest for example.
Adore the creepy little girl that flashes in the Arden manor rooms, that stuff just works for me. I didn't have any lag there but like I said, my computer isn't old and has quite high processing power. The screens were quite dark, in fact they are quite dark overall, perhaps a little too dark, and the strobing effect may cause some people problems.
I found a small bug. Once the tasks open up, the one for Fear Factor just outside the town, when you access it and say no you get pushed back two steps, which sometimes (depending on the direction you are facing) moves you into an area where you can only go forward to move, which accesses the task again, and you say no and back you go and rinse and repeat. I could get out of it by accepting the task, but I was just checking what the tasks were so I didn't really want to waste the stamina. Luckily I had saved on my way out of the town so I could just re-start (and yes, I don't like the save only in town thing, but like I said before, that's because my playing opportunities don't really gel with that restriction).
Quick question, why can you only take up one bounty hunt per day?
Oh and the optimise option for equipment doesn't work on the rings, you have to add those manually. Not a big deal, just a note.
Ok, got to get off the computer now. I'll play the last 2 days tonight, it's a fun ride so far, and I'm enjoying the character development and mix. Alma intrigues me, but then again I think that is what she is supposed to do, so well done.
So I like the intro, it gives a great feeling of dread and expectation, however it seems to be an odd mix of 'movie' with no interaction and dialogue where the player is expected to forward the action. Since you can't actually do anything with the characters in the intro perhaps making it all 'movie' would be a better option.
The shadow effects in the town are mismatched. The buildings are at 90 degrees and the trees/signs/well etc are at 45 degrees. It's like the place has a binary star, but that wouldn't work either since then there would be double shadows. The residential area is the best example of it, look at the shadow of the church tower compared to the shadow on the well.
In the Bounty Hunter HQ you can walk right through the beds.
Whilst I get that killing each boss gets a big reward, that chest is crazy. It's twice the height of the characters and about 5 times as long, but most importantly it's very pixilated. I know it's because the graphic for the chest is low resolution, but making that huge just looks out of place and clunky. I'd pick a different chest option, perhaps recolour one of the standard ones - I don't think I've ever seen a purple chest for example.
Adore the creepy little girl that flashes in the Arden manor rooms, that stuff just works for me. I didn't have any lag there but like I said, my computer isn't old and has quite high processing power. The screens were quite dark, in fact they are quite dark overall, perhaps a little too dark, and the strobing effect may cause some people problems.
I found a small bug. Once the tasks open up, the one for Fear Factor just outside the town, when you access it and say no you get pushed back two steps, which sometimes (depending on the direction you are facing) moves you into an area where you can only go forward to move, which accesses the task again, and you say no and back you go and rinse and repeat. I could get out of it by accepting the task, but I was just checking what the tasks were so I didn't really want to waste the stamina. Luckily I had saved on my way out of the town so I could just re-start (and yes, I don't like the save only in town thing, but like I said before, that's because my playing opportunities don't really gel with that restriction).
Quick question, why can you only take up one bounty hunt per day?
Oh and the optimise option for equipment doesn't work on the rings, you have to add those manually. Not a big deal, just a note.
Ok, got to get off the computer now. I'll play the last 2 days tonight, it's a fun ride so far, and I'm enjoying the character development and mix. Alma intrigues me, but then again I think that is what she is supposed to do, so well done.
gazi
0
I just finished downloading (I would have done earlier but it was soooo late yesterday xD)! Dunno if I can play through the demo until saturday because I've got some work to do BUT you'll get my reply on it as fast as its possible! At least I watched the intro and kinda share the same thought as nhubi (about turning it completely into a "movie")!
...more on this later ;)
...more on this later ;)
Daedron
432
author=nhubi
So I like the intro, it gives a great feeling of dread and expectation, however it seems to be an odd mix of 'movie' with no interaction and dialogue where the player is expected to forward the action. Since you can't actually do anything with the characters in the intro perhaps making it all 'movie' would be a better option.
I see what you mean, I never actually thought about it that way but it actually makes sense. I'll make it so the intro plays out on its own all the way up till the main character's part.
author=nhubi
The shadow effects in the town are mismatched. The buildings are at 90 degrees and the trees/signs/well etc are at 45 degrees. It's like the place has a binary star, but that wouldn't work either since then there would be double shadows. The residential area is the best example of it, look at the shadow of the church tower compared to the shadow on the well.
Yup, it's like this everywhere at the moment (at least in the areas I applied the shadow maps). I think it was some sort of weird style choice I made at the time even though it makes no sense from a realistic standpoint. I'll mess around with making everything at a 90 degree angle and see how it looks.
author=nhubi
In the Bounty Hunter HQ you can walk right through the beds.
Whoops, I guess the lord is quite strong.
author=nhubi
Whilst I get that killing each boss gets a big reward, that chest is crazy. It's twice the height of the characters and about 5 times as long, but most importantly it's very pixilated. I know it's because the graphic for the chest is low resolution, but making that huge just looks out of place and clunky. I'd pick a different chest option, perhaps recolour one of the standard ones - I don't think I've ever seen a purple chest for example.
I think I might actually just redraw and colour the chest again from scratch; I like how huge it is, but right now it is indeed just the small chest sprite scaled up. Redrawing it should fix that problem.
author=nhubi
Adore the creepy little girl that flashes in the Arden manor rooms, that stuff just works for me. I didn't have any lag there but like I said, my computer isn't old and has quite high processing power. The screens were quite dark, in fact they are quite dark overall, perhaps a little too dark, and the strobing effect may cause some people problems.
The creepy little girl is a reference back to Blood Haze, where she played a big part in a similar dungeon. I'm happy to know that someone actually got to see her though, since the chance of her appearing after the flashing lights is quite low.
I might brighten it up a bit since I also had trouble at some point with actually seeing things, most notably the monster groups in certain rooms.
author=nhubi
I found a small bug. Once the tasks open up, the one for Fear Factor just outside the town, when you access it and say no you get pushed back two steps, which sometimes (depending on the direction you are facing) moves you into an area where you can only go forward to move, which accesses the task again, and you say no and back you go and rinse and repeat. I could get out of it by accepting the task, but I was just checking what the tasks were so I didn't really want to waste the stamina.
I actually ran into this myself but forgot to fix it...it's fixed now (the player no longer takes a step back).
Also fixed the passability on the house to the south of said task, I don't think you should be allowed to phase through it.
author=nhubi
Luckily I had saved on my way out of the town so I could just re-start (and yes, I don't like the save only in town thing, but like I said before, that's because my playing opportunities don't really gel with that restriction).
Yeah, it's why I actually need feedback on it since I know some players can't play for too long or might have to quit playing abruptly. At the same time I'd rather not change it at all since I feel like players will save-scum their way through the game, instead of a defeat in a dungeon having lasting consequences. So I need to find a middle-ground.
I have a few options available to me but I'm not sure which one I want to implement.
1. You are allowed to save after every dungeon clear or defeat. This only really matters later on in the game and does not fix the abrupt mid-dungeon "I need to go NOW!" problem.
2. The player gains an item every day that allows him to save anywhere once (don't like this, people will just save before the boss and restart if they are defeated)
3. Two different modes selectable at game start: Restricted or Free. Restricted is the save system as it is now. Free is save anywhere.
I prefer implementing either solution 1 or 3. But I believe you in particular would like 3 more. Every solution is extremely easy to implement. (especially 3)
author=nhubi
Quick question, why can you only take up one bounty hunt per day?
I wanted to make it so that if the player was unable to defeat a bounty every day he would get into trouble later on, as in not being able to complete all 6 bounty lists.
At the same time, I can see this is actually a stupid design decision, as there's no way to make up for being defeated once because you can only take on one per day!
There is a better way I can implement it, not to mention a way that allows far more freedom.
So I'll look into doing it like this: The list remains the same but instead of accepting the individual bounties you accept the entire list. This means all 4 bounty targets are on the world map at the same time. Right before I released the demo I changed the stamina requirement from 1 to 0 and instead made it so you lose a part of your food reserve if you lost instead. (which I actually forgot to implement! oh well).
I found I never did tasks because the stamina was better spent elsewhere, so that's why I changed it.
If I implement this I'm not sure if I'll change it back to it costing 1 stamina per fight, I actually kind of like the whole losing food thing as it gives the player a tough decision. "Do I fight the bounties before I go into dungeons with the risk of losing part of the food, which I need to survive in there. Or do I go into dungeons first and then fight the bounties with a low reserve of food, meaning I can't risk any mistakes."
Doing it like this will also entice the player to actually buy more food, so it's a win-win.
author=nhubi
Oh and the optimise option for equipment doesn't work on the rings, you have to add those manually. Not a big deal, just a note.
Looking into it, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it meaningful as rings are not always pure stat boosts. "optimize" is not really optimized at all!
author=nhubi
Ok, got to get off the computer now. I'll play the last 2 days tonight, it's a fun ride so far, and I'm enjoying the character development and mix. Alma intrigues me, but then again I think that is what she is supposed to do, so well done.
Thanks so much, I can't wait to hear more from you!
Daedron
432
Also, there was some other change I wanted to make. Actually, two things.
1. When you clear a dungeon and get your loot, you get bombarded with dialog boxes for quite some time. I was thinking of only showing you the Legendary/Epic/Rare gear, while the Uncommon(green) gear does not get it's own dialog box. I find myself just holding shift after the first few items anyways because I know they're all going to be Uncommon. (the event processes the D rank loot last.)
2. Right now you only get loot when clearing a dungeon, if you die or leave your loot is lost. The penalty for dying is good enough, but I feel like you should still get your loot if you leave on your own. This gives the player a decision of fighting through the dungeon and beating the boss, or if they feel they can't take on the boss, they can leave and still get a part of the loot. I'll buff the big chest to always give 9 items instead of 5-9 so it's more enticing to go for it.
Though this is a risky move, as right now you could theoretically go through the dungeon getting all chests without fighting anything (except when you get locked into a room). At the same time, you still have to use 3 stamina for it and you don't gain any EXP, gold, golden keys or resources for it. Perhaps it's best to just leave it as is.
Thoughts?
I accidentally quoted myself instead of editing this post, disregard the post below this one.
1. When you clear a dungeon and get your loot, you get bombarded with dialog boxes for quite some time. I was thinking of only showing you the Legendary/Epic/Rare gear, while the Uncommon(green) gear does not get it's own dialog box. I find myself just holding shift after the first few items anyways because I know they're all going to be Uncommon. (the event processes the D rank loot last.)
2. Right now you only get loot when clearing a dungeon, if you die or leave your loot is lost. The penalty for dying is good enough, but I feel like you should still get your loot if you leave on your own. This gives the player a decision of fighting through the dungeon and beating the boss, or if they feel they can't take on the boss, they can leave and still get a part of the loot. I'll buff the big chest to always give 9 items instead of 5-9 so it's more enticing to go for it.
Though this is a risky move, as right now you could theoretically go through the dungeon getting all chests without fighting anything (except when you get locked into a room). At the same time, you still have to use 3 stamina for it and you don't gain any EXP, gold, golden keys or resources for it. Perhaps it's best to just leave it as is.
Thoughts?
I accidentally quoted myself instead of editing this post, disregard the post below this one.
Daedron
432
I made a google document which is open for anyone to view, I'll keep track of all my fixes just in case people start to report things I already fixed. I posted it at the top of this blog.
Or just go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eP1s9hFe3i4vWr8TTwvLwct_E2r5XWqZJ7Ur8qFmdc0/edit?usp=sharing
Or just go here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eP1s9hFe3i4vWr8TTwvLwct_E2r5XWqZJ7Ur8qFmdc0/edit?usp=sharing
OK well that was a full on response :)
Right I finished the demo, and I want to see what happens next so that's a good thing.
In relation to any other issues the only odd things I ran across were in relation to the social rank, so I'm not sure if it's a bug or simply hasn't been fully implemented yet. I couldn't find Ari to talk to her, not sure if she has a night-time place assigned. Mayra disappears from the Hunter HQ on night 4, not sure if that is because it is night 4 or because I had spoken to her once, and Alma whilst still there when I speak to her a second time doesn't increase in social rank, the graphic comes up but it still says one (though her stats do go up).
Now in relation to your post. Yes I'm fond of option 3 in the save choices, but I wouldn't want the player to miss out on something just because they chose the free save preference. I have a feeling that implementing it as a preference choice at the beginning would be like normal vs hard mode whereby those who play hard get extra benefits. Given the balance this game has to have in order to ensure you make it past the coming of Deimos that would be disadvantageous to the 'free' player. In addition it doesn't solve your innate issue with people saving before the boss, or indeed before chests if they want to play the system to get better loot. However I don't think anything is going to stop that if you give them an option to save anywhere. Honestly I think the one save per day artefact is a better way to go, even though it is your least favourite option. Not because they couldn't still save before the boss/chests etc and restart, but because I think there is a somewhat psychological barrier to only having one save that makes you careful about where you use it.
However I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here. So far from what I have seen the dungeons are small. I've only played normal mode obviously and the Bandit Hillside, Arden Mansion, Amarcarn Volcano & Lemura Depths so I have no idea if they get bigger, in which case this point is moot but I actually don't find the pressing need to save during the course of a 'day', so far. Simply because I can polish off a dungeon in 30 minutes or so and I can dedicate that much time without it impacting in the real world too much. However I do remember you saying the difficulty level ramps up from day 10, so by then, I may indeed be cursing the lack of saves. Still it's up to you in relation to game balance, and this one is meant to be strategic, so perhaps it may be better for the game (rather than the player) to leave it as it is.
Side note, there was a tiny bit of Lag in the Depths, a bit of stop start action in the movement. Nothing major but noticeable, though that may be because you'd pointed it out so I was actively looking for it.
I like the new idea for the bounty hunter quests, yes food is a balancing act so if you have to gauge whether you can risk the food you need to get that optional extra or if you want to play the safe route and go for the dungeon only instead I can see that working well. I look forward to agonising over that choice when demo 1.1 comes out.
You're right, optimise isn't, but then I'm never sure how the algorithm for that works. For instance at the moment it seems to favour higher HP and MP over everything else. In that if I have a piece of defensive wear, notably shields it'll pick the option that adds to my HP rather than my DEF. I can argue that a higher HP is a defensive strategy especially given the fact there is no way to heal during a battle (and THAT took some getting use to, let me tell you). But by and large I tend to modify to up the stat rather than the HP simly because it 'feels ' right. It seems to be working for me so far, as I haven't been beaten too badly by a boss yet, though there have been some close shaves.
The loot does get a little confusing, because of the fact you don't actually know what you are getting, and yes the message box fest that happens at the end is a little long, but that doesn't worry me so much. One thing I would like to see is an idea what item falls into what category. I know there are a couple of colour coded options, because I've got them in my inventory, but I don't know what the colours signify. The 'blog you did about Uncommon/Rare/Epic/Legendary is great, but what would be better is if the in-game items actually colour matched that 'blog. Green for Uncommon, Blue for Rare, Orange for Epic and Red for Legendary. I know I've got at least 1 "S" piece of loot in my travels and a small number of A's as well as B's, but I don't know what that translates into in my inventory, it would be good to know. If it's not a huge issue to implement of course.
In regard to keeping the loot, that is a nice addition, but in truth since I know I've got 29 days to get my town in order I'm not ever going to bail out of dungeon without taking out that boss and get the mega-chest. I need the ore/wood and crystal in order to upgrade and survive. Still it would be a good compromise for those people who aren't as goal oriented as I am :).
Now on to the actual game itself for those last 2 days (well actually one since day 5 is really just the morning). My goodness the Iron Tower is a difficult one. I made it, just, but I was only there by the skin of my teeth, and then to have that thrown back at me was brilliant. Bastian (my Lord) is obviously so uncertain in his new role and having this monster of a man belittle him both verbally and physically is a great dynamic. I do admit to doing a little happy dance (well a sitting happy dance, let's not not get too carried away) when Leona returns. I think I actually said, "Not so smart are you now, big guy".
Though that being said, how out of touch are the townspeople? If the local bandits know about Deimos and the next town over knows about Deimos (to the point of mass murder) and the people running the town know about Deimos, and even the nameless voices at the beginning know about Deimos what have these traders been doing? After all being shop-keepers means they have to interact with people outside of the town in order to get supplies, surely they have been getting into conversation about the tremors and the animals and other strange occurrences?
In regard to the Lord and family, is there going to be an explanation as to why he wasn't in the town with his father? I'm sure I remember reading something early on stating that the new Lord was the old one's brother which made sense for him not to be around, after all one of them inherits the kingdom/province the other goes off adventuring, enters holy orders, becomes a scholar et al. But a son should surely be with his father if that man is the Lord of a realm. Was he at school? Or on a quest of some kind? Living with his Mum after a messy separation? It's just that nobody in the town seems to know him, or at least know him well, which gives the impression he hasn't been there for a long time.
Right well I think that's about all, I want to say I've really enjoyed the Demo. The world is well developed, and the characters (the playable ones at least) are interesting enough that I'd like to know more about them, which for me is usually more important than game mechanics and the like. It's the plot that draws me in, and this one has.
In a completely crazy side note, when that opening sequence kicks in with the two disembodied voices discussing the end of the world, when the know-it-all says he's the God of Time and Space and the other asks his name, I thought automatically "he calls himself The Doctor." Sorry, I just found it really funny. Then again I did grow up with Daleks and Cybermen as my companions, so I can't be completely blamed.
Thanks for a few hours of fun so far, and looking forward to more when the next Demo (or full game) is up....and I'm going to go download Blood Haze now, just for the creepy girl.
Right I finished the demo, and I want to see what happens next so that's a good thing.
In relation to any other issues the only odd things I ran across were in relation to the social rank, so I'm not sure if it's a bug or simply hasn't been fully implemented yet. I couldn't find Ari to talk to her, not sure if she has a night-time place assigned. Mayra disappears from the Hunter HQ on night 4, not sure if that is because it is night 4 or because I had spoken to her once, and Alma whilst still there when I speak to her a second time doesn't increase in social rank, the graphic comes up but it still says one (though her stats do go up).
Now in relation to your post. Yes I'm fond of option 3 in the save choices, but I wouldn't want the player to miss out on something just because they chose the free save preference. I have a feeling that implementing it as a preference choice at the beginning would be like normal vs hard mode whereby those who play hard get extra benefits. Given the balance this game has to have in order to ensure you make it past the coming of Deimos that would be disadvantageous to the 'free' player. In addition it doesn't solve your innate issue with people saving before the boss, or indeed before chests if they want to play the system to get better loot. However I don't think anything is going to stop that if you give them an option to save anywhere. Honestly I think the one save per day artefact is a better way to go, even though it is your least favourite option. Not because they couldn't still save before the boss/chests etc and restart, but because I think there is a somewhat psychological barrier to only having one save that makes you careful about where you use it.
However I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here. So far from what I have seen the dungeons are small. I've only played normal mode obviously and the Bandit Hillside, Arden Mansion, Amarcarn Volcano & Lemura Depths so I have no idea if they get bigger, in which case this point is moot but I actually don't find the pressing need to save during the course of a 'day', so far. Simply because I can polish off a dungeon in 30 minutes or so and I can dedicate that much time without it impacting in the real world too much. However I do remember you saying the difficulty level ramps up from day 10, so by then, I may indeed be cursing the lack of saves. Still it's up to you in relation to game balance, and this one is meant to be strategic, so perhaps it may be better for the game (rather than the player) to leave it as it is.
Side note, there was a tiny bit of Lag in the Depths, a bit of stop start action in the movement. Nothing major but noticeable, though that may be because you'd pointed it out so I was actively looking for it.
I like the new idea for the bounty hunter quests, yes food is a balancing act so if you have to gauge whether you can risk the food you need to get that optional extra or if you want to play the safe route and go for the dungeon only instead I can see that working well. I look forward to agonising over that choice when demo 1.1 comes out.
You're right, optimise isn't, but then I'm never sure how the algorithm for that works. For instance at the moment it seems to favour higher HP and MP over everything else. In that if I have a piece of defensive wear, notably shields it'll pick the option that adds to my HP rather than my DEF. I can argue that a higher HP is a defensive strategy especially given the fact there is no way to heal during a battle (and THAT took some getting use to, let me tell you). But by and large I tend to modify to up the stat rather than the HP simly because it 'feels ' right. It seems to be working for me so far, as I haven't been beaten too badly by a boss yet, though there have been some close shaves.
The loot does get a little confusing, because of the fact you don't actually know what you are getting, and yes the message box fest that happens at the end is a little long, but that doesn't worry me so much. One thing I would like to see is an idea what item falls into what category. I know there are a couple of colour coded options, because I've got them in my inventory, but I don't know what the colours signify. The 'blog you did about Uncommon/Rare/Epic/Legendary is great, but what would be better is if the in-game items actually colour matched that 'blog. Green for Uncommon, Blue for Rare, Orange for Epic and Red for Legendary. I know I've got at least 1 "S" piece of loot in my travels and a small number of A's as well as B's, but I don't know what that translates into in my inventory, it would be good to know. If it's not a huge issue to implement of course.
In regard to keeping the loot, that is a nice addition, but in truth since I know I've got 29 days to get my town in order I'm not ever going to bail out of dungeon without taking out that boss and get the mega-chest. I need the ore/wood and crystal in order to upgrade and survive. Still it would be a good compromise for those people who aren't as goal oriented as I am :).
Now on to the actual game itself for those last 2 days (well actually one since day 5 is really just the morning). My goodness the Iron Tower is a difficult one. I made it, just, but I was only there by the skin of my teeth, and then to have that thrown back at me was brilliant. Bastian (my Lord) is obviously so uncertain in his new role and having this monster of a man belittle him both verbally and physically is a great dynamic. I do admit to doing a little happy dance (well a sitting happy dance, let's not not get too carried away) when Leona returns. I think I actually said, "Not so smart are you now, big guy".
Though that being said, how out of touch are the townspeople? If the local bandits know about Deimos and the next town over knows about Deimos (to the point of mass murder) and the people running the town know about Deimos, and even the nameless voices at the beginning know about Deimos what have these traders been doing? After all being shop-keepers means they have to interact with people outside of the town in order to get supplies, surely they have been getting into conversation about the tremors and the animals and other strange occurrences?
In regard to the Lord and family, is there going to be an explanation as to why he wasn't in the town with his father? I'm sure I remember reading something early on stating that the new Lord was the old one's brother which made sense for him not to be around, after all one of them inherits the kingdom/province the other goes off adventuring, enters holy orders, becomes a scholar et al. But a son should surely be with his father if that man is the Lord of a realm. Was he at school? Or on a quest of some kind? Living with his Mum after a messy separation? It's just that nobody in the town seems to know him, or at least know him well, which gives the impression he hasn't been there for a long time.
Right well I think that's about all, I want to say I've really enjoyed the Demo. The world is well developed, and the characters (the playable ones at least) are interesting enough that I'd like to know more about them, which for me is usually more important than game mechanics and the like. It's the plot that draws me in, and this one has.
In a completely crazy side note, when that opening sequence kicks in with the two disembodied voices discussing the end of the world, when the know-it-all says he's the God of Time and Space and the other asks his name, I thought automatically "he calls himself The Doctor." Sorry, I just found it really funny. Then again I did grow up with Daleks and Cybermen as my companions, so I can't be completely blamed.
Thanks for a few hours of fun so far, and looking forward to more when the next Demo (or full game) is up....and I'm going to go download Blood Haze now, just for the creepy girl.
Daedron
432
author=nhubi
In relation to any other issues the only odd things I ran across were in relation to the social rank, so I'm not sure if it's a bug or simply hasn't been fully implemented yet. I couldn't find Ari to talk to her, not sure if she has a night-time place assigned. Mayra disappears from the Hunter HQ on night 4, not sure if that is because it is night 4 or because I had spoken to her once, and Alma whilst still there when I speak to her a second time doesn't increase in social rank, the graphic comes up but it still says one (though her stats do go up).
You're right, it's not fully implemented yet and I only have the bare minimum in terms of ranks. Ari is not available to talk with until the end of day 6 (so it's not in the demo).
Mayra disappeared on night 4 because you talked to her on night 3, there's a period of 3 days inbetween each social rank. This is mainly because I want to drop some story-related stuff that happens on day 10 in the later ranks, to kind of intertwine the main plot and the social ranks together. That, and because it forces the player to mix up a bit.
As for Alma...let's see. Ah. Yeah, that's a bug. I forgot to implement said "3 day cooldown" for her and since she only has the first rank implemented so far you got to see the scene two times. Fixed now!
author=nhubi
Now in relation to your post. Yes I'm fond of option 3 in the save choices, but I wouldn't want the player to miss out on something just because they chose the free save preference. I have a feeling that implementing it as a preference choice at the beginning would be like normal vs hard mode whereby those who play hard get extra benefits. Given the balance this game has to have in order to ensure you make it past the coming of Deimos that would be disadvantageous to the 'free' player.
If I implemented it there would be no penalty or benefit to either, it would simply be a choice and nothing more than that. As much as I want people to play on the "restricted" mode, you still have to cater to people who don't like that style as well.
author=nhubi
In addition it doesn't solve your innate issue with people saving before the boss, or indeed before chests if they want to play the system to get better loot. However I don't think anything is going to stop that if you give them an option to save anywhere. Honestly I think the one save per day artefact is a better way to go, even though it is your least favourite option. Not because they couldn't still save before the boss/chests etc and restart, but because I think there is a somewhat psychological barrier to only having one save that makes you careful about where you use it.
True, I can see people just saving in front of the boss chest or any chest for that matter and then retrying until they get favourable luck...
So, yes. The save artifact or whatever would definitely be far better. People could still save in front of the boss chest or even the boss itself, but in case of the boss chest I can simply make it so people can't open the menu after beating the boss. That wouldn't be a problem at all since there's literally no reason to use the menu during that time anyways, and you get menu access back literally half a minute later.
Saving in front of the boss is something I won't be able to "fix".
author=nhubi
However I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here. So far from what I have seen the dungeons are small. I've only played normal mode obviously and the Bandit Hillside, Arden Mansion, Amarcarn Volcano & Lemura Depths so I have no idea if they get bigger, in which case this point is moot but I actually don't find the pressing need to save during the course of a 'day', so far. Simply because I can polish off a dungeon in 30 minutes or so and I can dedicate that much time without it impacting in the real world too much. However I do remember you saying the difficulty level ramps up from day 10, so by then, I may indeed be cursing the lack of saves. Still it's up to you in relation to game balance, and this one is meant to be strategic, so perhaps it may be better for the game (rather than the player) to leave it as it is.
Dungeons stay the same size, or close to it, throughout the entire game. Dungeons should not take longer as the game progresses or when you play them on higher difficulties, they should just be harder. This also means I'm making sure battles don't take longer, you can just die more easily. I wanted the game to be a game where you CAN pick it up for half an hour and get through an entire day.
The thing is though, you eventually get enough stamina to go into two dungeons per day, and at Support Team level 5, three dungeons. So the time it takes to complete a full day or get back to town could still ramp up to 1 hour or more.
Which is why I was fond of alternate save option 1. Because that still means you get to save every 20-30 minutes or so, without there being the risk of some severe save-scumming. People could still restart their save if they are defeated in battle, but would they really do it on purpose if they knew it would lose them 20-30 minutes of progress?
author=nhubi
Side note, there was a tiny bit of Lag in the Depths, a bit of stop start action in the movement. Nothing major but noticeable, though that may be because you'd pointed it out so I was actively looking for it.
Yeah, it's because the shadow/lighting map for that dungeon is more complex than anywhere else, what with all the colours and huge amounts of smaller objects. I might completely re-map the entire area if slower PC's literally can't handle that place, but I'll have to wait and see...I too don't have a really slow PC, but my 4 year old laptop can run it fine (and it wasn't exactly state of the art back then).
author=nhubi
I like the new idea for the bounty hunter quests, yes food is a balancing act so if you have to gauge whether you can risk the food you need to get that optional extra or if you want to play the safe route and go for the dungeon only instead I can see that working well. I look forward to agonising over that choice when demo 1.1 comes out.
I like it a lot as well, simply being defeated once by a bounty is already a big blow to your reserves so you still need to be careful in picking your battles.
author=nhubi
I can argue that a higher HP is a defensive strategy especially given the fact there is no way to heal during a battle (and THAT took some getting use to, let me tell you).
You mean with items? Because Damian, Mayra and Ari have healing abilities available to them and they're quite potent.
That reminds me, I should get rid of the "items" command in battle because there will never be an item that's usable in combat anyways.
author=nhubi
One thing I would like to see is an idea what item falls into what category. I know there are a couple of colour coded options, because I've got them in my inventory, but I don't know what the colours signify. The 'blog you did about Uncommon/Rare/Epic/Legendary is great, but what would be better is if the in-game items actually colour matched that 'blog. Green for Uncommon, Blue for Rare, Orange for Epic and Red for Legendary. I know I've got at least 1 "S" piece of loot in my travels and a small number of A's as well as B's, but I don't know what that translates into in my inventory, it would be good to know. If it's not a huge issue to implement of course.
I take it you would like to know what item in your inventory is an S-rank item and what is for example a B-rank? Because the colours of items in-game do match up to the blog.
Well, thing is there is no real "S rank item" or "B rank item" per se. Basically the ranks you get from chests just determines what colour you (can) get. If you got an orange item, it could be from an S rank or an A rank. If you have some blue items, they came from A, B or C ranks (though A & B have a higher chance to give said blue items than C). Greens come from B/C/D. With D always giving out a green item no exceptions.
What item it gives you though is completely random, and you could get a better item from an A rank than you do from an S rank simply because the S rank gave you a lvl 6 blue while the A rank decided to give you a lvl 10 blue.
You could also get an orange item from the A rank and not from the S rank simply because the S rank rolled an item type that has no Orange items in that level range (say, lvl 5-10) so it's only choice is to give you a blue item, while the A rank rolled an item type that did have an orange item in it and you got lucky enough to get it (A ranks have a small chance for orange).
I hope that sort of answers the question, or perhaps I misunderstood it.
author=nhubi
In regard to keeping the loot, that is a nice addition, but in truth since I know I've got 29 days to get my town in order I'm not ever going to bail out of dungeon without taking out that boss and get the mega-chest. I need the ore/wood and crystal in order to upgrade and survive. Still it would be a good compromise for those people who aren't as goal oriented as I am :).
Well, let's say you had a real hard time in the dungeon. The normal mooks are giving you a tough time and you're running really low on food, you don't have enough to fully heal your MP but you still cleared out everything and got all chests...except for the boss.
This would be a situation where perhaps it would be wiser to not take the risk of losing everything you gained up that point and simply leave the dungeon with your current loot. I quite like this type of decision, risk it all with the thought of gaining more, or leave a big chunk of loot behind but keep what you could get.
author=nhubi
Now on to the actual game itself for those last 2 days (well actually one since day 5 is really just the morning). My goodness the Iron Tower is a difficult one. I made it, just, but I was only there by the skin of my teeth, and then to have that thrown back at me was brilliant. Bastian (my Lord) is obviously so uncertain in his new role and having this monster of a man belittle him both verbally and physically is a great dynamic. I do admit to doing a little happy dance (well a sitting happy dance, let's not not get too carried away) when Leona returns. I think I actually said, "Not so smart are you now, big guy".
I had a lot of fun putting that part together, I just hope it didn't come off as too cheesy at times, I sometimes have trouble with picking the right words.
author=nhubi
Though that being said, how out of touch are the townspeople? If the local bandits know about Deimos and the next town over knows about Deimos (to the point of mass murder) and the people running the town know about Deimos, and even the nameless voices at the beginning know about Deimos what have these traders been doing? After all being shop-keepers means they have to interact with people outside of the town in order to get supplies, surely they have been getting into conversation about the tremors and the animals and other strange occurrences?
They actually do know, as do many other people. At least, to some degree, because it's simply a rumour that's been spreading, but has not reached everyone's ears yet. That, and no one is actually sure if this world-destroying God is gonna pop up, so not everyone actually believes it. The bandits apparently do, but are they even 100% sure? The Mayor over at Arden did as well and went insane because of it, fearing for his life and trying everything to gain power and survive the faithful day. The rest of the townspeople in Arden might have disregarded the entire thing as some kind of myth however.
And then there's the fact that no one actually knows for sure that the tremors and the aggressive wild-life are all linked to Deimos. Only the player party actually knows it's true, but only because of the Time Warping Crystals they've been collecting, which wouldn't be there if Deimos wasn't influencing the world in some way. Nothing else points to the fact that the world is about to end.
At the same time there's a plot hole there since you've been using these Time Warping Crystals to upgrade your town. You've been causing time warps and there are people working there...hmmm, I'll have to find a way to re-write that a bit.
In the intro, Leona called the rumour a fairy tale when talking to the bandit. Of course, she knows what's up but she was simply trying to reassure the townspeople that were present at that moment that nothing's going to happen.
Perhaps she also went around town reassuring everyone that nothing's going to happen, but then I would actually have to tell the player that...so I will!
The nameless voices in the beginning are the voices of some major characters later on, all will be made clear in due time...(oh, where have I read that before?)
Anyways, I could probably rewrite the dialog in the Balder scene a bit to make it more clear that the townspeople knew of the rumour, but they weren't sure whether to believe it or not.
author=nhubi
In regard to the Lord and family, is there going to be an explanation as to why he wasn't in the town with his father? I'm sure I remember reading something early on stating that the new Lord was the old one's brother which made sense for him not to be around, after all one of them inherits the kingdom/province the other goes off adventuring, enters holy orders, becomes a scholar et al. But a son should surely be with his father if that man is the Lord of a realm. Was he at school? Or on a quest of some kind? Living with his Mum after a messy separation? It's just that nobody in the town seems to know him, or at least know him well, which gives the impression he hasn't been there for a long time.
You raise a very good point here, the main character's background is currently shrouded in mystery...perhaps a bit too much. I'll definitely be working on this some more. So far it's known that he's from a small farming village. Probably living on his own. Perhaps he didn't like the thought of living in a bigger city? Maybe he didn't like his father enough? Perhaps he was lazy...but yeah, I'll write something that makes sense.
Also the "brother" thing was a very stupid mistake on my part. I put "Sibling of lord Tarron" in the Lord's Biography on the status screen. It has been changed to "Son", There is no brother to speak of.
At least none that I know of.
author=nhubi
Right well I think that's about all, I want to say I've really enjoyed the Demo. The world is well developed, and the characters (the playable ones at least) are interesting enough that I'd like to know more about them, which for me is usually more important than game mechanics and the like. It's the plot that draws me in, and this one has.
Good to hear, I'm doing something right for once!
author=nhubi
In a completely crazy side note, when that opening sequence kicks in with the two disembodied voices discussing the end of the world, when the know-it-all says he's the God of Time and Space and the other asks his name, I thought automatically "he calls himself The Doctor." Sorry, I just found it really funny. Then again I did grow up with Daleks and Cybermen as my companions, so I can't be completely blamed.
I had to look this up on youtube...and wow, the scenes really are quite similar! If only one of the voices asked "Identify him!" instead of "What's his name?"
author=nhubi
Thanks for a few hours of fun so far, and looking forward to more when the next Demo (or full game) is up.
I still got a long ways to go, right now I really just want to get the main game done and I think releasing multiple demos, for example at day 10, 15, 20 etc. would only make me take longer to finish it since I'll keep going back and fixing/balancing things instead of doing it all in one big swoop right at the end.
So I'll probably not release any new playable content until I'm completely finished with the game around mid-2015.
author=nhubi
and I'm going to go download Blood Haze now, just for the creepy girl.
Oh boy, prepare for a very weird mix of...well, everything. I kind of made that with no clear plan beforehand. Well, I guess it could still prove to be enjoyable. the creepy girl plays a part near the beginning, I think you'll know what part when you step inside the dungeon. ;)
urano23
393
Well, I really enjoyed the demo but since feedback is important I will tell what things I didn't like.
- Not being able to save anywhere. I like when I have savepoints in a game because it's the most ballanced saving system. You can't save whenever you want but you are not forced to beat a whole stage until saving. I really don't like the fact that I can't save when I'm out of the town. I have to do everything and I'm not able to save until I decide to call it a day.
Besides, up until now dungeons were pretty short. What's gonna happen when dungeons are really long? If I have to leave am I going to lose everything I did since I left the town?
- Non talkative main character. This is not necessarily bad, but it's something I, personally, don't like. I like having a good and developed main character I can empathize with. I was never really fond of the "Link" type of main character, but that's just me really. Although I like that you give me options to talk with the characters frequently.
- Is it a horror game? One of the things I loved from Bloods Haze(apart from the awesome gameplay and really interesting story) was that weird mixture between horror and rpg. I was expecting something like that here, but up until now I didn't. I guess I'm not going to see a stage like the hotel with the creepy girl or Marlene's mansion of despair but I would love to see more horror. The closest thing to that was the intro, which was more awesome than scary. And I call intro to everything showed before Deimos logo shows up.
- Was I supposed to beat the boss of the 5th day? 'Cause I didn't. I don't know if either that was supposed to happen or I just sucked hard. Maybe because the previous day I didn't go to a dungeon and I didn't level up properly, which means I was very underleveled. The problem is, once you are here you can't do anything to level up so if there's no option to continue with the story even if you lose you are screwed because your only option is to restart the whole game.
- Graphics have improved since Blood Haze, but those shadows are weird. Why are some in 45° while others are horizontal? Was that intentional or just a scripting fail? It doesn't really matter but I want to know.
- Items are unranked. At the end of the dungeon you get a lot of items but none are ranked, which means I don't know what items are the rank A and what are the rank D. I can only assume that after finding 3 rings of defense, those are rank D and I think the blue items are better(although if there's another difference I can't really tell 'cause the game doesn't explain it).
It would be helpful to provide me with that information, it's very simple.
I think that's all. Despite my complaints, I loved the demo. The characters, the story and the overall gameplay, it's all really good and I'm really looking forward to playing the whole game.
Good luck, and sorry for my mediocre english.
- Not being able to save anywhere. I like when I have savepoints in a game because it's the most ballanced saving system. You can't save whenever you want but you are not forced to beat a whole stage until saving. I really don't like the fact that I can't save when I'm out of the town. I have to do everything and I'm not able to save until I decide to call it a day.
Besides, up until now dungeons were pretty short. What's gonna happen when dungeons are really long? If I have to leave am I going to lose everything I did since I left the town?
- Non talkative main character. This is not necessarily bad, but it's something I, personally, don't like. I like having a good and developed main character I can empathize with. I was never really fond of the "Link" type of main character, but that's just me really. Although I like that you give me options to talk with the characters frequently.
- Is it a horror game? One of the things I loved from Bloods Haze(apart from the awesome gameplay and really interesting story) was that weird mixture between horror and rpg. I was expecting something like that here, but up until now I didn't. I guess I'm not going to see a stage like the hotel with the creepy girl or Marlene's mansion of despair but I would love to see more horror. The closest thing to that was the intro, which was more awesome than scary. And I call intro to everything showed before Deimos logo shows up.
- Was I supposed to beat the boss of the 5th day? 'Cause I didn't. I don't know if either that was supposed to happen or I just sucked hard. Maybe because the previous day I didn't go to a dungeon and I didn't level up properly, which means I was very underleveled. The problem is, once you are here you can't do anything to level up so if there's no option to continue with the story even if you lose you are screwed because your only option is to restart the whole game.
- Graphics have improved since Blood Haze, but those shadows are weird. Why are some in 45° while others are horizontal? Was that intentional or just a scripting fail? It doesn't really matter but I want to know.
- Items are unranked. At the end of the dungeon you get a lot of items but none are ranked, which means I don't know what items are the rank A and what are the rank D. I can only assume that after finding 3 rings of defense, those are rank D and I think the blue items are better(although if there's another difference I can't really tell 'cause the game doesn't explain it).
It would be helpful to provide me with that information, it's very simple.
I think that's all. Despite my complaints, I loved the demo. The characters, the story and the overall gameplay, it's all really good and I'm really looking forward to playing the whole game.
Good luck, and sorry for my mediocre english.
Pokemaniac
3559
I loved this demo and I'm really eager to play more!
The gameplay systems were all very smartly put together. Combat required tactics without taking too long or becoming taxing. The way dungeons were laid out made them easy to interact with and I loved their individual aesthetics(if I had one complaint here, the maps could be a bit busy graphically- but that gave the game its own atmosphere at the same time). Every dungeon I visited felt very unique and all had something stand-out about them. The loot system was interesting, but I seemed to get waaaay too many D grade items. I only ever got green or blue items in my entire playthrough, even after doing the bandit hideout on hard.
In terms of combat, I never really found a reason to change my party, except when one character wasn't available. I don't know what you could do about this but it's something to consider.
The story seems to have some really interesting ideas throughout it, but the writing isn't quite there- for instance, the blood mage area presented an interesting problem, but didn't investigate it at all and just presented a very basic moral, making a grey issue a bit too black and white for my liking. Likewise, the characters have some interesting dynamics but the stiffness of the writing undermined them- I'd recommend spending some time revising the dialogue and getting to the same standard as everything else.
But overall, I was completely engrossed in this game from very early on right until the end. The gameplay systems were made with great care and the rest shows a lot of potential with some polish. Bravo!
The gameplay systems were all very smartly put together. Combat required tactics without taking too long or becoming taxing. The way dungeons were laid out made them easy to interact with and I loved their individual aesthetics(if I had one complaint here, the maps could be a bit busy graphically- but that gave the game its own atmosphere at the same time). Every dungeon I visited felt very unique and all had something stand-out about them. The loot system was interesting, but I seemed to get waaaay too many D grade items. I only ever got green or blue items in my entire playthrough, even after doing the bandit hideout on hard.
In terms of combat, I never really found a reason to change my party, except when one character wasn't available. I don't know what you could do about this but it's something to consider.
The story seems to have some really interesting ideas throughout it, but the writing isn't quite there- for instance, the blood mage area presented an interesting problem, but didn't investigate it at all and just presented a very basic moral, making a grey issue a bit too black and white for my liking. Likewise, the characters have some interesting dynamics but the stiffness of the writing undermined them- I'd recommend spending some time revising the dialogue and getting to the same standard as everything else.
But overall, I was completely engrossed in this game from very early on right until the end. The gameplay systems were made with great care and the rest shows a lot of potential with some polish. Bravo!
author=Daedron
True, I can see people just saving in front of the boss chest or any chest for that matter and then retrying until they get favourable luck...
So, yes. The save artifact or whatever would definitely be far better. People could still save in front of the boss chest or even the boss itself, but in case of the boss chest I can simply make it so people can't open the menu after beating the boss. That wouldn't be a problem at all since there's literally no reason to use the menu during that time anyways, and you get menu access back literally half a minute later.
Saving in front of the boss is something I won't be able to "fix".
Ok so what about this, you have a savepoint in each dungeon, just one but with unlimited saves (I'd put it in the first room). So that if you do have GO NOW you can still save without leaving the dungeon and the loss of the valuable stamina points but it's much less likely that someone is going to use it to restart after a chest or even the boss if they have to back track though the whole dungeon to save in the first place and then retrace back to the chest if they restart.
author=Daedron
Which is why I was fond of alternate save option 1. Because that still means you get to save every 20-30 minutes or so, without there being the risk of some severe save-scumming. People could still restart their save if they are defeated in battle, but would they really do it on purpose if they knew it would lose them 20-30 minutes of progress?
Actually that is good too, so simply implement the save on world map option, so the in-between dungeons bit gets saved. I like.
author=Daedron
You mean with items? Because Damian, Mayra and Ari have healing abilities available to them and they're quite potent.
That reminds me, I should get rid of the "items" command in battle because there will never be an item that's usable in combat anyways.
Yes I mean with items, sorry. I don't tend to use healing spells unless I have to (my style) simply because I want everyone to beat up the enemy and get him/her/it gone! Had to modify that for this game, and that is not a bad thing.
author=Daedron
I take it you would like to know what item in your inventory is an S-rank item and what is for example a B-rank? Because the colours of items in-game do match up to the blog.
Well, thing is there is no real "S rank item" or "B rank item" per se. Basically the ranks you get from chests just determines what colour you (can) get. If you got an orange item, it could be from an S rank or an A rank. If you have some blue items, they came from A, B or C ranks (though A & B have a higher chance to give said blue items than C). Greens come from B/C/D. With D always giving out a green item no exceptions.
What item it gives you though is completely random, and you could get a better item from an A rank than you do from an S rank simply because the S rank gave you a lvl 6 blue while the A rank decided to give you a lvl 10 blue.
You could also get an orange item from the A rank and not from the S rank simply because the S rank rolled an item type that has no Orange items in that level range (say, lvl 5-10) so it's only choice is to give you a blue item, while the A rank rolled an item type that did have an orange item in it and you got lucky enough to get it (A ranks have a small chance for orange).
I hope that sort of answers the question, or perhaps I misunderstood it.
Ok so this does confuse, simply because in the blog it said that a "S" ranked item will ALWAYS give you a Epic and a chance of a Legendary and since the Epic are orange and I got at least one "S" rank I expected to see an orange item somewhere in there. But you appear to be saying that a Rare (Blue) item can actually be an Epic item dependant on it's level, if it's a lvl5 sword it's rare but if it's a lvl10 it's epic, but it'll still show as blue. Have I got that right? Because if that is, is there a way to change the colour dependant on the level? If not that's fine, it's just the colour coding doesn't make a lot of sense when the items look the same, but underneath they are not.
author=Daedron
This would be a situation where perhaps it would be wiser to not take the risk of losing everything you gained up that point and simply leave the dungeon with your current loot. I quite like this type of decision, risk it all with the thought of gaining more, or leave a big chunk of loot behind but keep what you could get.
Yes, I can see how that would work and I think it's a great addition, I'm just saying I wouldn't use it.
author=Daedron
At the same time there's a plot hole there since you've been using these Time Warping Crystals to upgrade your town. You've been causing time warps and there are people working there...hmmm, I'll have to find a way to re-write that a bit.
Actually I could see people thinking the TWC are causing the tremors, messing with the flow of time and all that. I could even see them accusing the Lord of bringing Deimos down on all their heads by playing with the laws of nature like that.
author=Daedron
You raise a very good point here, the main character's background is currently shrouded in mystery...perhaps a bit too much. I'll definitely be working on this some more. So far it's known that he's from a small farming village. Probably living on his own. Perhaps he didn't like the thought of living in a bigger city? Maybe he didn't like his father enough? Perhaps he was lazy...but yeah, I'll write something that makes sense.
Also the "brother" thing was a very stupid mistake on my part. I put "Sibling of lord Tarron" in the Lord's Biography on the status screen. It has been changed to "Son", There is no brother to speak of.
At least none that I know of.
Cool would be good to know just why he's not around. Also secret brother could have been Iron Tower, how much of a cut up would that be if the kid works out he was almost killed by his uncle and then had his 2IC kill him, especially if he's the only family left. I could even see the reasoning, my older brother got the crown and I got nothing so I turn to a life of villainy, but he's still my brother so when I go to confront the new kid about how he is not stacking up I make a point of saying how well loved he was and how he looked after the region/kingdom.
author=Daedron
So I'll probably not release any new playable content until I'm completely finished with the game around mid-2015.
AARRGGHH, a year? Oh, well.
Oh and Blood Haze is 'different', but I'm still enjoying it.
Daedron
432
author=urano23
- Not being able to save anywhere. I like when I have savepoints in a game because it's the most ballanced saving system. You can't save whenever you want but you are not forced to beat a whole stage until saving. I really don't like the fact that I can't save when I'm out of the town. I have to do everything and I'm not able to save until I decide to call it a day.
Besides, up until now dungeons were pretty short. What's gonna happen when dungeons are really long? If I have to leave am I going to lose everything I did since I left the town?
Dungeons are gonna stay short from beginning to end. I want them to become harder, not longer.
author=urano23
- Non talkative main character. This is not necessarily bad, but it's something I, personally, don't like. I like having a good and developed main character I can empathize with. I was never really fond of the "Link" type of main character, but that's just me really. Although I like that you give me options to talk with the characters frequently.
Silent protagonists are always hit or miss but I'll do my best to give frequent options and inner monologues to still give him some sort of personality.
author=urano23
- Is it a horror game? One of the things I loved from Bloods Haze(apart from the awesome gameplay and really interesting story) was that weird mixture between horror and rpg. I was expecting something like that here, but up until now I didn't. I guess I'm not going to see a stage like the hotel with the creepy girl or Marlene's mansion of despair but I would love to see more horror. The closest thing to that was the intro, which was more awesome than scary. And I call intro to everything showed before Deimos logo shows up.
It's not a horror game, it might have some slight horror elements but that's really about it.
author=urano23
- Was I supposed to beat the boss of the 5th day? 'Cause I didn't. I don't know if either that was supposed to happen or I just sucked hard. Maybe because the previous day I didn't go to a dungeon and I didn't level up properly, which means I was very underleveled. The problem is, once you are here you can't do anything to level up so if there's no option to continue with the story even if you lose you are screwed because your only option is to restart the whole game.
He's tuned to be beatable if you went into a dungeon each day so that you're around lvl 11/12. However, of course I knew people would come to day 5 unprepared, so I added the option to continue the story even if you lost. This will also be the case for the day 10 boss but not for the ones after that, because there will be ways to stop and revert time after day 10. (with the penalty of dungeon clears not giving you resources/TWC's for obvious reasons)
author=urano23
- Graphics have improved since Blood Haze, but those shadows are weird. Why are some in 45° while others are horizontal? Was that intentional or just a scripting fail? It doesn't really matter but I want to know.
I'm changing that. Nhubi already mentioned it.
author=urano23
- Items are unranked. At the end of the dungeon you get a lot of items but none are ranked, which means I don't know what items are the rank A and what are the rank D. I can only assume that after finding 3 rings of defense, those are rank D and I think the blue items are better(although if there's another difference I can't really tell 'cause the game doesn't explain it).
It would be helpful to provide me with that information, it's very simple.
The ranks simply determine the chance of getting Green/Blue/Orange/Red, nothing more than that. A Ring of Defense is a green item, so you could have gotten it from a B/C/D rank, though the D rank has a higher chance of green than B, which has a higher chance of blue.
I'll revise the item/chest tutorial so that it's made clear that item ranks and rarities aren't the same thing.
author=urano23
I think that's all. Despite my complaints, I loved the demo. The characters, the story and the overall gameplay, it's all really good and I'm really looking forward to playing the whole game.
Thanks! Too bad it's going to take a while before I'm done with the entire game.
author=urano23
Good luck, and sorry for my mediocre english.
Your English is really good, don't worry about it.
Daedron
432
author=Pokemaniac
I loved this demo and I'm really eager to play more!
The gameplay systems were all very smartly put together. Combat required tactics without taking too long or becoming taxing. The way dungeons were laid out made them easy to interact with and I loved their individual aesthetics(if I had one complaint here, the maps could be a bit busy graphically- but that gave the game its own atmosphere at the same time).
The busy maps are just my style it seems, though I do think I went a bit too far with some of the Lumera Depths maps. I'll probably be re-mapping some of those.
author=Pokemaniac
but I seemed to get waaaay too many D grade items. I only ever got green or blue items in my entire playthrough, even after doing the bandit hideout on hard.
This is intentional, especially at the beginning. Of course, I'll keep an eye out on the drop rates as I get further into developing the full game.
Also, even though you only got greens and blues from Bandit Hillside hard mode, those items were all better than anything else in the demo. Hard and Abyss difficulties drop higher level items. Items are divided into item levels behind the scenes. Bandit Hillside Normal drops items from the item level 1 pool, the rest of the Normal dungeons drop level 2 and Bandit Hillside Hard drops level 3.
Thinking about it now, it would be interesting to add that information to the dungeon info screen.
author=Pokemaniac
In terms of combat, I never really found a reason to change my party, except when one character wasn't available. I don't know what you could do about this but it's something to consider.
I'm not too worried about this. I simply want people to use the party they like most.
author=Pokemaniac
The story seems to have some really interesting ideas throughout it, but the writing isn't quite there- for instance, the blood mage area presented an interesting problem, but didn't investigate it at all and just presented a very basic moral, making a grey issue a bit too black and white for my liking. Likewise, the characters have some interesting dynamics but the stiffness of the writing undermined them- I'd recommend spending some time revising the dialogue and getting to the same standard as everything else.
Getting the writing to acceptable standards is going to be the hardest task. I'm not sure if I'm even able to get myself to that level, simply because I don't have a clue on how to make my dialog flow better at this point. Perhaps there's some online writing lessons I could follow...I guess I just need someone to teach me.
author=Pokemaniac
But overall, I was completely engrossed in this game from very early on right until the end. The gameplay systems were made with great care and the rest shows a lot of potential with some polish. Bravo!
Thank you so much, I really hope you'll enjoy the full game as well, or even more, than the demo.
Daedron
432
author=nhubi
Ok so this does confuse, simply because in the blog it said that a "S" ranked item will ALWAYS give you a Epic and a chance of a Legendary and since the Epic are orange and I got at least one "S" rank I expected to see an orange item somewhere in there. But you appear to be saying that a Rare (Blue) item can actually be an Epic item dependant on it's level, if it's a lvl5 sword it's rare but if it's a lvl10 it's epic, but it'll still show as blue. Have I got that right? Because if that is, is there a way to change the colour dependant on the level? If not that's fine, it's just the colour coding doesn't make a lot of sense when the items look the same, but underneath they are not.
Okay, I can see where the confusion may come from now.
In the blog I said this:
"However, it's still possible to get rares from an S rank, as you might get a loot table of lvl 5-10 helmets, which for example contains no epic or legendary rarities."
Basically, not every single item type actually has an orange item at the moment. For example... in Bandit Hillside Normal you get lvl 1 - 5 items. Currently, only Maces, Dual swords, Greatswords, Sceptres, Medium Chest Armour and Medium Boots have an orange item within that level range. If the game then decides to give you a Heavy Chest Armour as your S-Rank item, you'll get a blue.
Though, like I said, I can see where the confusion may come from. At the same time I can also see that the system might be a bit discouraging. You (finally) got lucky and got an S-Rank, you think you'll get something amazing but you just get another blue item.
I'll look through my code and see if I can change it so that if you land on an S-Rank, you'll always get an orange item for your troubles.
author=nhubi
AARRGGHH, a year? Oh, well.
Oh and Blood Haze is 'different', but I'm still enjoying it.
Yup, I already put about a 1000 hours into just the first 5 days so far...though most of the time was spent on getting all the systems just right, so I can see the rest of the game not taking as long to make.
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