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It starts out simply enough. An apprentice at a small-town potion shop is out looking for ingredients when she accidentally falls into a cave. A cave with monsters in it, as it happens. Despite her lacking much combat skill beyond blocking and throwing potions, the apprentice apothecary Brill is thrust into an adventure, with the fate of the entire continent of Ruphand hanging in the balance. It may seem like a story you've heard before. But not everything is quite as it seems...

In Ruphand: an Apothecary's Adventure, the player follows Brill Yance, whose only offensive skill is throwing bottles at things until they go away. By using Sample to scrounge up ingredients off the ground, Brill can mix up a variety of potions, which are also her primary means of defense.

Every move- whether it's one of Brill's potions, or a monster attack- has an associated Windup time and Delay time. By paying attention to how fast it'll take to ready attacks, strategically blocking attacks, and employing the status effects associated with each of the six elements, the player can avoid damage and fight back against powerful foes.

First released in 2017 on RPG Maker Net, Ruphand has returned to active development. The present version of the game provides at least twenty hours of gameplay, and it's still not finished; there's still more story to tell!

Itch.io page
Click here! This is where most of the devlogs will arrive first, so keep an eye on it.

Old Blog
Click here if you want to see the old dev blog.

Downloads
Latest Version (0.3.6) - Also available as Main Download or on Downloads page
Earlier Versions:


Ruphand 0.3.5 P2 - available through itch.io, also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.5 P1 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.4 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.3 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.2 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.1 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.3.0 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.6 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.5.1 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.5 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.4 P1 - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.4 - also available on Downloads Page
Ruphand 0.2.3 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.2 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.1x P3(MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.1x P2(MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.1x P1(MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.1x (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.1 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.2.0 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.1.5 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.1.4 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.1.3 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand 0.1.2 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand_0.1.1 (MediaFire) - also available on Downloads page
Ruphand Version 0.1.0 (MediaFire)


How to move save files from an earlier version to a later version
-Go to your old version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-If you have saved files, there should be a folder named "save"; right-click the folder and select "Copy".
-Go to your new version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-Paste the old save folder into the new version's www folder by entering the www folder, right-clicking inside it, and selecting "Paste".


Credits
Made in RPG Maker MV
Enterbrain (RPG Maker MV, also XP and 2000 resources)
Yanfly (Yanfly Engine Plugins)
Akashics (Monster graphics at www.akashics.moe)
Hime (Plugins)
chronosv2 (Death Common Events plugin)
SkottyTV (Window Graphics)
whtdragon (RTP tileset edits)
flirion (RTP charset edits)
Soleil-musique (BGM at soleilmusique.web.fc2.com)
Saia Hyouseki/FREEDOM HOUSE (BGM at http://fhouse.s17.xrea.com/)
Terozu (Pirate ship sprite, me hearties)

Latest Blog

No blog entries have been posted yet.

  • Production
  • 3 of 6 episodes complete
  • DocSpacebar
  • RPG Maker MV
  • RPG
  • 01/18/2017 04:04 AM
  • 02/17/2024 02:45 PM
  • 01/17/2017
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Posts

I'm getting some major errors somewhere.

ingame, the whole thing hangs when I'm trying to claim medal points at 20 kills.

Process-wise, the game startup lags when the MV logo is trying to disappear. Both here and during the hang above, processor usage shoots up to 30+% for no visible reason. I'm guessing there's a segfault or something at this point.

Restarting did nothing to fix the problem.
Afternoon!

@Cryum: I just got the chance to check the comments today. Thanks for the critique!

On the Crystal: I realize that I wrote the dialogue with the Crystal at an earlier time, when I didn't expect the plot to get serious at any point. I'll do a little rewriting; the Earth Crystal was supposed to sound fairly down to earth (for a magic Crystal anyway), but the umms are pushing it. I also like the idea of having Brill emote a bit more, and I'll start working on some field sprites for that.

On Defending: There are certain elements, Thunder especially, that are made to deal with Blocking enemies. However, a new player may not know that when they enter the area with Autocrawlers, so I'll tone down their Blocking tendencies, and maybe sneak in a new chest with some Force Gems and Monster Fangs.

On monster stats in the bestiary: I needed room for flavor text. However, I'm considering adding the ability to switch between a "stats page" and a "lore page" on the screen.

On sorted items: This is the biggest problem I've noticed, other than bugs. There's so many items it's impossible to keep track. Sorting items into different tabs is next on my list. Even potions are likely to be split into "attack" and "support" categories.

As for the bugs, I managed to fix the stuck knight glitch, the Braced Gauntlet bug, and the medal points bug. I'll do a bit more debugging and release an update with the bugs fixed as soon as I can.

Finally, the splash screen issue is probably load time. I'll see what I can do about it.
Nice!

Also, how does block buster work? Is 1/2 block buster +50% damage when the enemy is blocking? So 3/2 block buster is +150%?

I definitely feel that the Challenge Tower is slow. For randomized fights that can pit you against the same encounter, it takes too long to win even after you've "solved" the fight already. I can understand if you don't want the "chess puzzle" setup where you only have exactly the number of items to win a single fight, but maybe you should cut down the starting resources and number of fights you have to do?
@Cryum: Block Buster is based on the target's Block Strength; 1/2 Block Buster adds 50% of their Block Strength while 3/2 adds 150% of their Block Strength. I'm currently uploading Version 0.2.1x p1, and the in-game book that explains this effect will now make this more clear as of that patch.

As for the Challenge Tower, it doesn't run out of fights. The goal is to get as high as possible until you're done, much like the Battle Tower from the Pokémon series. A future update may decrease the chance that you run into the same enemy group twice in a row, and the amount of floors needed to encounter a Tower Lord could be lowered from 20 to 10.

EDIT: The previously mentioned patch is now released, with many of the bugs fixed.

Changelog of 0.2.1x P1:

DIALOGUE:
-The book in the Royal Library, "Let's Learn Our Elements; Thunder", now indicates that Block Buster is based on the target's Block Strength.
-Initial dialogue with the Earth Crystal has been altered somewhat.

BUGFIXES:
-NPCs should no longer block the medal vendors in the Champion's Guild.
-Layering issues in the Concealed Storeroom fixed.
-Recipes now properly require Equipment again.
-The Champion's Guild Medal Point trainer will no longer cause an infinite loop when you train Medal Points at him a second time.

If you want to import your save files from an earlier version to a later version, follow these steps:
-Go to your old version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-If you have saved files, there should be a folder named "save"; copy the folder.
-Go to your new version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-Paste the old save folder into the new version's www folder.
well now, here's a hilarious bug: equipping an item automatically unequips it. I couldn't put on any medals, and when I optimized all my shields and armor were unequipped.
They just keep popping up. This bug and the Braced Gauntlet bug are related to the "independent gear" feature, included in Yanfly's Item Script, that I thought would be needed (but wasn't needed) for 0.2.1's Medal system. I've just now come up with a fix, but I'll need a way to change existing items to their new, non-"independent" version so they can properly be used in crafting.

I'll get this more comprehensive fix out there as soon as I've got this done.

EDIT: And said comprehensive fix is now out there! Finally, the items are back to normal and I can get to working on content (and some quality-of-life stuff). Important thing: be sure to hit "Sample" somewhere you can get items, then re-equip your gear when the game prompts you to.

I'll copy and paste the changelog here too.

Changelog of 0.2.1x P2:

IMPORTANT:
-If your save file was in Version 0.2.1, 0.2.1x, or 0.2.1x P1, use Sample to gather ingredients somewhere to re-enable your equipment for use in Crafting. Afterward, be sure to equip your items, as they will be unequipped.

BUGFIXES:
-Brill has corrected the momentary lapse in judgment that was preventing her from equipping items.

If you want to import your save files from an earlier version to a later version, follow these steps:
-Go to your old version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-If you have saved files, there should be a folder named "save"; copy the folder.
-Go to your new version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-Paste the old save folder into the new version's www folder.
Brill, you're drunk. No weapons is one thing, but don't go chucking potions at monsters in the nude.

Thanks for the quick fix!
Hooookay, new set of bugs:

winning streak record was not updated. both from forfeiting and from just losing.

Meteo soldier's Cover is not stated in Check, and sometimes makes the unit untargettable afterwards

Undead units can be healed at 0 hp. Is that....intentional?

Degen from burn dropped me to 0hp, but didn't kill me.

wandering monsters got stuck in walls

Detective doesn't actually take the shadow shards/orbs, leading to infinite money.....if you can stand going through 30 message boxes of individual rewards.

I can walk on the kitchen table in the restaurant.

Crashed while reading book on attack and defense.
More stuff.

Sidenote: I have a setup that can 2punch spiders and crabs on the beach all day everyday without taking any poison.

Bugs:
Let's learn Water typo. Used slow instead of weaken

Can't use Treat even after "learning" it.

Resting at bed doesn't cure poison?

Somehow clipped through event tile for boss of beach by walking through the statues, walked straight through the boss and picked up the Life Gem.

Fishman Major Garb typo. Says 4 def, but actual stat shows 3 def.


Low Priority Bugs:
Shop only shows 1 equipped medal when purchasing medals.
Need to unequip medal before the medal points are freed up to switch with something else.
I've gone about fixing these bugs on my end.

Undead being healable at 0 HP is working as intended; a later enemy type will actively make use of this.

I can't seem to reproduce the not dying on Burn damage bug, the unselectable Meteo Soldier bug, or the crashing when reading about Attack and Defense bug. Could you give me a bit more information about when each one happened?

I also noticed a ceiling section I inadvertently made walkable. I for one welcome our new walkable ceiling overlords, and will place a treasure chest there since it doesn't make anything accessible that shouldn't be accessible.
author=DocSpacebar
I can't seem to reproduce the not dying on Burn damage bug, the unselectable Meteo Soldier bug, or the crashing when reading about Attack and Defense bug. Could you give me a bit more information about when each one happened?

Burn Damage and Meteo soldier both happened in the challenge tower. I can't give much more info about burn other than it being from Voidfire, but the meteo soldier bug happened a couple more times, sometimes at battle start which made it hard to target the squishier enemies first.

It's just....some turns I can only target one thing, other turns, usually after killing something, I can target normally again.



For the book on attack/defense, I had just left the beach and needed to stock up on ingredients. I was getting some lag when exiting menu or entering crafting, and there was also a bit of lag loading up some of the books I was reading, culminating in a crash when it particularly lagged on attack/defense.
I've released a patch with many bugs fixed. This latest edition also has had a patch added to improve memory management.

Changelog of 0.2.1x P3:

DUNGEONS AND TOWNS:
-A new treasure chest was added somewhere.

BUGFIXES:
-The Winning Streak in the Challenge Tower should now properly update when you leave or fail.
-Checking Meteo Soldiers should now properly show that they take damage for allies.
-The detective outside the Defenders' Rest now actually takes the Shadow Shards and Ominous Orbs when you turn them in.
-Merrick's Restaurant has reinstated its "no walking on the kitchen table" policy.
-Certain instances of the "Let's Learn Our Elements: Water" no longer incorrectly state that Soften slows you down.
-Beds and inns should now cure Poison.
-Treat is now considered a normal skill rather than Magic, which means Brill can actually use it.
-The statues in the fort on Belke Coast are now properly considered solid objects.
-The Fishman Major Garb was not contributing the full 4 Defense, instead only giving 3 Defense. After a stern reprimand by the unimplemented Fishman General Garb, it now grants 4 Defense as its description states.

If you want to import your save files from an earlier version to a later version, follow these steps:
-Go to your old version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-If you have saved files, there should be a folder named "save"; copy the folder.
-Go to your new version of Ruphand, and navigate to the www folder.
-Paste the old save folder into the new version's www folder.
Does action meter bonus stack additively or multiplicatively?

Damn, pM paper. I can't believe I got that.

Hmm, maybe you can start the ice dragon fight damaged from the sucker punch? While you're busy wasting that first turn healing, he starts laying down the chills...

Why didn't you just use TP or MP for starforce and find a way to rename TP/MP?

Heartbeat Medal seems waaaay too weak. Is Spike Guard potion really so overpowered that it takes 3 medal points to pump it up by 1 damage?

Bugs:

Event tile for entering crypt always happens, even after the first time.

I don't see the added chest in the crypt? Waaaait, do you mean there's ANOTHER place where I can glitch into the walls?

Torchwick's bodyguard has Torchwick's hp in Check.

Targeting glitch went away when I mashed direction buttons.....maybe I just left the mouse over one since I switch between game and notepad for bug-taking.

Torchwick was too easy??? He only took 1 set of 35 before dying. Not gonna bother keeping a save to fight them for "real", since I expect I'll see them again.

Block isn't in the Chess King's Checklist.

Hidden library layering error. One of the bookshelves in the first map has the walkable area in it instead of in front of it.

I....can use the Orb book in battle?

south chest of crystal cave 1st map. Couldn't open it from above?

Lag when spawning mobs over time? Creatures didn't appear at battle start, but over some ticks. It's REALLY cool, though, for a multi-wave fight of some sort.

Starforce is usable outside of battle. This....concerns me. Brill gonna go all terrorist on us?

Screen froze at the beach in a fight. Everything still works, I just can't see. Guess I had too many programs running?

Another screenfreeze, quickly moving from library entrance to library itself. Probably just ram overflow of some sort.

Debane/Anti-all have so many ingredients that I can't read the last one.
I apologize for the delay in fixing the bug. While I'd like to get right on fixing bugs and adding content, I've been busy with end-of-semester stuff and final exams are coming up. After the last exam on Wednesday, I should have a lot more time to not only squash more bugs, but add some hidden secrets to the World Map.

On the Heartbeat medal: The next release will increase the HP bonus to 5. 3 was too low. Many incorrect Check descriptions and invalid usability issues will be corrected in the next version as well. (Star Burst isn't actually supposed to be usable on the map, I messed up.)

The Dream Drop swarm adding Dream Drops over time is working as intended. That way, you aren't overwhelmed immediately.
No, don't feel pressured to fix the bugs as I find them. I'm just listing them in batches whenever it's convenient for me as well.
Shiny things in bushes being money seem kind of....boring. Maybe you could have it be dragon poo or hints about the boss or something.

To date, I have never remembered to eat food for.....ANY fight. Maybe there should be a suggestion before a bossfight to eat something.

Barrier Forest
tiny map mistakes:
I can walk through a cliff onto the right side of the tiny waterfall

right side of same map, can walk up a level sideways.

I can walk into a crack on the wall in jellytown

Major error, slime village:
Entering 0 turns when you want to purchase ice/fire resistance hangs the game. I probably should have saved first.

Harbor city place:
Lazy Lobster doesn't sell food?

The walkspace on the docked ship is a biiiit bigger than the ship itself.

Perspective's a bit wonky in the ruin tunnel entrance. South wall looks like it's under the walkable path, making the whole thing seem one floor higher. Not sure how to fix that.

More wall-walking in the tunnels. I think it's possible to steal the boss chests without fighting the boss. Looks like the main issue is treating cracks as walkable.
Afternoon, RPG Maker Net!

I've been doing some work on the game, but one area in particular is taking a bit of time to implement. I should have a large update, with fixes for most of the bugs Cryum reported (thanks a ton!) as well as a few more secrets in the Regalle region and actual food items on the Lazy Lobster's menu.

Christmas festivities will take up a good amount of my time, but I should have the next update ready in around two weeks, tops.
Ruphand 0.2.2 is available for download! It adds a number of hidden items to Regalle, including a path to reach a small dungeon!

Changelog of 0.2.2:

DUNGEONS & TOWNS:
-Torkenwatch Lighthouse has been added to the game.
-The Midd Farmstead, just northwest of Orvas, might have a few hidden items around that Brill could use.
-A few hidden areas have been added to the Regalle region.
-Changed the lighting a bit in the Levitt's Landing underground ruins.
-The Lazy Lobster finally found its own menus. Not sure where they've been misplaced all this time, but they're there now, and you can purchase three different (and very helpful) dishes.

ITEMS:
-The Heartbeat medal has been improved.

SKILLS:
-Starforce is no longer usable outside of battle.

BUGFIXES:
-Certain walls, mostly in the ruin tunnels, that were walkable should no longer be walkable. Some other passability issues, such as the walkable area on the ships in Levitt's landing, should also be fixed.
-The game should no longer hang when you buy Fire or Ice Resistance in Jelirol.
Nice.

Rather than bugs, I want to try talking about builds, to basically encourage players to try more than 1 build.

GOFAST
Basically equipping every single action speed-increasing item and just rolling with it. This is what I use due to the sheer variety and control you have over the battlefield. This build probably only has about half the bonus damage of a dedicated dps build, but it makes up for it by being a little more than twice as fast as everything else and essentially being able to stun-lock slower opponents by spamming super pepperflasks.

While this means that you basically don't have to worry about timing....ever, not having amps means that your supernuke tier 3 potions don't actually deal too much damage in the grand scheme of things. You go through too many materials to really make use of higher tier pots efficiently. On the other hand, all elemental effects are just as strong, so they still have uses. A secondary drawback is, due to the penalties of haste gear, your block strength drops so low that you may start taking damage even with block up.


Burninating the people, burninating the countryside...
Man, Brill really loves her Fire Oil doesn't she? Considering has a hotsauce pepperflask that deals more damage than a fire flask, I really wonder if she's secretly fire-aligned as a person.

Fire is fairly simple: deal damage, wait a while to deal even more damage. It's good for undead in particular, but otherwise fairly standard. My issue is with when burn procs. No matter how many stacks of burn you apply or how intense the fires, you still have to wait for the enemy to attack to proc the damage. To me, that means putting yourself in unnecessary risk and draining defensive supplies just to get the full worth of fire. The damage itself is only middling as well. It's decent as an armor-piercing effect, but the actual damage is quite tiny and it isn't affected by Fire Amp(maybe it should?). Later on, we should get enough supplies for the potions that triple burn damage, but until we get enough materials to reliably stack that for even one boss, it's not a very enticing option. Maybe there should be a much cheaper double burn damage potion(kindling? firewood?) that has the drawback of very long recovery, maybe 50%?

In practice, a fire build will either try to burst the enemy down with the initial fire-amped damage, or be surprisingly defensive and pile on burn stacks while trying to take as little damage as possible. Earth and defensive equipment goes very well to make that happen.

I'll post about earth and thunder sometime in the future.
I'm thinking of maybe having Burn damage proc when the target is hit as well as when the target attacks. I'm also considering adding Fire Amp to damage dealt, with the Amp that's applied being based on the highest that the target added to the particular Burn effect with. So, using a move that boosts your Fire Amp and applying a Burn will give you the boosted value until the Burn is gone.

I'm thinking of something similar for Earth effects, which would make Earth Amp a better defensive effect.