MERLANDESE'S PROFILE

author=Cap_H
This looks like you made some fancy ai.

Yeah, too fancy sometimes! I made this game 15 years ago and have played it in the thousands of times against humans. Then I made this digital version and I still struggle to beat the Efficient AI. XD

author=Kaempfer

author=Ramshackin
Sophie: Oh, and stick to the path, Vincent. There are monsters stronger than you or I between us and Sagarisk.

you or me*

;)

Double approval on the "you and me," although I think it'd sound more fluid just saying "us" and changing the second "us" to "here."

Sophie: Oh, and stick to the path, Vincent. There are monsters stronger than us between here and Sagarisk.

I don't think ANYONE knows how early you should send it out. But I'd be sure that you're comfortable with your current trailer and associated online material (sites, Twitter, Soundcloud, etc.) when you send it, because chances are these people aren't going to crack open your game and just start playing. They'll want to do Lazy research first, and the easier you make that for them, the more likely they'll get around to looking at the game proper. That's my take, at least.

And I wouldn't be worried about the Kan/Ken thing. There's something weird where even professional sites will write "Ken" for some reason. I believe that they see/hear "Kan" and later, when they go to write, think to themselves, "Nah, that couldn't have been the name, it must be Ken." XD People do that with my name, too. My name is Lannie, but then, later, they write Lenny, because no WAY was his name Lannie!

author=Red_Nova
Random ideas off the top of my head. Each one not necessarily mutually exclusive:

1) What if items you could steal from enemies were items they would use in battle? Stealing the potion item from a soldier enemy would prevent the soldier from healing themselves.

2) Have the thief immediately use the item after stealing it.

3) Have the thief able to steal equipment to make them more vulnerable and/or giving party useful gear. For example: in a fire themed dungeon, enemies would have skills and armor centered around fire, so a thief stealing the fire-blocking armor would give the party the defenses they would need to survive.

I like all of these as ideas! Would definitely put a more active spin on the thief class. The first point reminds me of Paper Mario, where if an enemy has an item to steal you can not only see it, but they will use it (maybe) if you don't take it from them. In a way it's like a short-term Blue Mage. Cool ideas.

author=Craze
Merlandese, I like your idea for more gameified games (...) that are timed, grindy, whatever. I dunno if it fits something with a more narrative focus.

I have no idea if LockeZ's game has a narrative focus or not, but the template for JRPG thieves already uses this "box" idea for individual enemies. I don't think it makes it more "gameified" or less by extending that box to multiple individuals. In a way, JRPGs use this idea already, except only when applied to your Team. Most games don't allot inventory to each of your player characters, so when a thief hits you, they steal from your whole box. My idea is to just apply that logic to enemies and then make it so that they don't need to be in the same fight to share that inventory box. I think it curbs the need to steal from every enemy without removing it altogether. It also isn't such a massive system mechanic that it would ever need to be discussed; just keep it internal.

You can put these enemies in groups, maybe similar to Monster Type (Human, Avian, Magical, etc.) and place the items in this sort of group category. Then, when you're stealing from a certain Type of enemy, you're actually dipping into a "box" that's shared by multiple existing enemies.

You can make the Unique items disappear from the "box" permanently the first time they are stolen.

Furthermore, you can make it so that every time you kill one of these types of enemies, the more rare items have a slightly increased chance of being stolen in subsequent enemies. This would hopefully make it more beneficial for the player to steal from only the later people in that group and not waste time on the first ones they encounter. (They have to gamble a bit mentally on how many they might think exist in a dungeon, but that's already a thought they would be fostering in your perma-dead-enemy style anyhow.))