STRAK'S PROFILE

Okay, so that was a mess. The "fix" that I implemented in v0.2 was super buggy, and trying to fix it was like trying to make water run uphill. I was basically trying to make the engine do something that it absolutely DOES NOT want to do. That's not to say it was impossible, but far more trouble than what it was worth. So I came up with an alternative solution.

The main problem surrounding "Rage" and "Stalking" was that they weren't worth spending a turn to activate. Yeah, that changes later in the game when you unlock more skills, but these are the characters primary Action Skills. They should be at least SOMEWHAT useful as soon as you unlock them. My initial solution of having them not cost a turn to activate WOULD have been fine, but it's not the only solution.

To that end, I've changed the functionality of "Stalking" entirely. Instead of just a straight damage buff, "Stalking" will now completely conceal the Hunter from enemies, preventing him from being targeted at all until his next attack lands. Even if he's the only one still standing. Even if there's a technique that targets everyone. He simply cannot be targeted. There is still a tier 1 skill that DOES give "Stalking" a damage buff, but the skill itself is not focused on that. This should give the skill much more usefulness, and make it worth spending a turn to activate even at low levels. This also may be pretty broken at later levels, so I may need to do some balancing later, but I'll get to that.

As for "Rage," nothing fancy. The damage and dexterity buffs are actually pretty good on their own, especially when paired with Overdrive techniques, but the main problem is that they didn't last long enough. So I doubled the duration of "Rage," and increased the duration buffs of some of his skills. Now it doesn't just last for 3 or 4 rounds of combat, and you should get a lot more mileage out of the skill.

While this wasn't the initial solution I wanted, part of game development is thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative ways of fixing a problem, even if the solution isn't what you thought it would be. Essentially, just because a problem presents itself doesn't mean that's the actual problem. It may just be a symptom, and the real problem lies somewhere else. The problem wasn't that these skills don't activate right away, the problem was that they weren't worth spending a turn on. Instead of addressing the symptom, I just made them worth the turn you have to spend on them. Hopefully this works out, but let me know your feedback, and thanks for your patience. Happy looting!

After reflecting on the usefulness of some of the Action Skills, I've made a slight adjustment. Seeing as how both "Rage" and "Stalking" require a turn to activate, their usefulness was somewhat mitigated. In my own tests, I found myself rarely using the skills, resorting to just spamming attack instead. "Aura" was used quite a bit, and gains even more usefulness in later levels, and of course "Elemental Burst" was extremely useful no matter what.

To that end, I've modified both "Rage" and "Stalking" to be immediately applied on use, without costing the turn to do so. This means that you can trigger the skill, then immediately do another action such as attack, use an item, or defend. Keep in mind that "Rage" takes away player agency until a much later skill is unlocked, but essentially this means you can use "Rage" and attack in the same turn.

I've also increased the damage modifier of "Rage" from +20% to +50%. I found that the buff wasn't quite enough for it to be truly worth the cost, so now it has been improved.

In regards to some player feedback, I've also slightly reduced enemy damage stats, and I've removed the enemy respawn functionality from the first boss fight. Balancing is something I'll be doing a lot more of in the full release, but for now this will have to do.

Version 0.2 is now available, so feel free to download it and give it a try! Old saves should be compatible (for whatever that's worth for an hour long demo). Thanks for playing!

EDIT: There seems to be a slight bug with the new action skills when animations are playing that causes battles to freeze. I'll release a patch later tonight that fixes this, but it will disable the action skill animation for the time being until a more permanent fix can be employed. Thank you for your patience.

EDIT EDIT: Turns out this bug is more tricky to figure out than I'd initially thought. I'll keep working on a solution, but the fix will be delayed somewhat.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: I've reverted the demo back to version 0.1 temporarily while I figure out this bug. Turns out it was far more buggy than I'd initially realized, and any solutions I've come up with have a whole host of other problems attached to them. I'm still working on a fix, but for now at least the available demo isn't a completely buggy mess.

Can we not. This died a while ago, let's keep it that way if we can please.

Oh dang, I didn't know that! To my knowledge, this was the only game I've seen that utilises a fully custom random loot system. Well, guess my claim to fame is over, time to scrap the project kidding, kidding. I'm having way too much fun making this to do that.

Thanks! Strangely I did actually use an acrylic brush, but the particles may have been a little too densely clustered, giving it a bit of a more rounded edge. Next time I'll try something a little more dispersed.