SUPERSTROKE'S PROFILE

Hello pianotm.

First of all, thank you very much for this review, I found it extremely enlightening.

author=pianotm
I won't reveal the quote

It would not have been a spoiler really, look just above your review, in the game profile picture ;)

author=pianotm
This music gives you the sick feeling and that just isn't what this game is about.

I was bummed you thought the music didn't fit too well. I assume you are mainly talking about this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtEMHeCLDF0
The music is indeed all from Silent Hill 3, except for the reoccurring drone which is from... Fable 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBePpRnShZU

I considered using the first minute for the 3rd trial (the one with the sand), but it felt like a bit too much, especially for the minimalist tone I was trying to go for. I might go back to it and change it if it was really that bothering.

I'm very glad you got the message I was generally going for, although I tried to leave it open-ended and up to the current Dupe's interpretation.
That's a bit what the real experiment is maybe. ;)
Although you seemed to feel the message was "ham-fisted" (I didn't know that expression, I had to look it up),
I'd be curious to hear more about this from you.

The game is an adaptation (honestly pretty faithful too) of a strange dream I had a long time ago.
I pulled a switch, which seemed to stop my heartbeat and had to complete some puzzle thing with clocks that were ticking.
I was then told that since I had stopped time by pulling the switch, and I had no past and no future, I would behave differently than I normally would (no remorse, no regrets, no hope, no anticipation and whatnot) and that's what the experiment was about.
I obviously added a bit more here and there to make it a bit more coherent.

Now this is where I'm going to disappoint since most of the other things you mentioned were intentional:
I absolutely, absolutely had not thought of the Dreamer/Dupe/Examiner as the Freudian trinity of the psyche.
I mean I was aware of the concept when developing but this interpretation gives the game almost a completely new sense I think so bravo to you.
I had intended them to all be the same person (and I mean, they originally were all technically me in my dream and I tried to reinforce that with the end quote), but really not like this. Wow.

And for the conclusion, the game already got a better reception I was expecting (it got a review).
I obviously don't mean to insult my player, just to toy with him a little ;), but that's only because the game was born a little bit from my personal frustrations and also to get the Dupe thinking when faced with nihilistic, surreal but cold imagery. Like that dream did for me 5 or so years ago.

I definitely hope more people will share their interpretation of the game, this was a very interesting read.

No offense taken haha, I think people should come here for criticism not for praises.
Your map example is helpful but could you highlight which roof tile im missing (im suspecting the tip of the roof right from the hero but just to be sure in case you saw something else)

Hey everyone.

I use the default item and shop system in RM2003, some of my items affect multiple stats. (example: a fine blade mainly increases attack, but increases speed as well because it is easy to maneuver, on the other hand, a heavy armor increases defense but slows you down).

Because the default system just uses an arrow up, arrow down system, it's not always clear what you are buying.

So here is what I am basically trying to do:


As you probably guessed I create four characters for strength, endurance, wisdom and finesse. I give each of them the appropriate attribute before opening a shop.
When the shop is closed, they are removed from the party and the "real" hero is added back.

As you can see, I ran into a problem because I am a bit unsure of how the arrow system works.

So here is my first question: I think the system works that way. If my hero has 5 for all of his stat and has a dagger which increases strength by 2, and decides to change it for a two handed axe which increases strength by 5 but decreases finesse by 2, the engine calculates a value for the dagger build (7+5+5+5=22) and one for the axe build (10+5+5+3=23), the shop will claim that the axe is stronger since 23>22.

Can anyone confirm that it is indeed how it works?

And now for the second question: Is what I'm trying to do even doable in RM2003?
I tried setting each of the other stats to zero at first (but then every item is always better) and then I tried setting all other stats to an average of all stats (since in my mental model, the calculation is done by adding the attributes) but to no avail. Should I do the average of only the remaining stats? Every other solution I can come up with needs to take into account the items (which basically makes it undoable in RM2K3).

so TLDR:
- How are the arrow up, arrow down calculated in the default shop system?
- Is what I am trying to do even doable?

Thanks in advance!


EDIT:

Turns out my mental model was wrong and RM is really stupid when comparing equipment.

I won't go too much into details but basically RM chooses an arbitrary stat to compare (usually the first one modified so by order of priority attack, defense, mind, speed) and as a result cannot do exactly what I was trying to do.

Nevertheless this is my current solution to the problem:


In my opinion it is better than the default system for a one man party, it does serve a different purpose than the normal arrow system as it absolutely does not compare to the current equipment. I posted this here in case someone was interested.

It's called Inelukikey Patch or sometimes Ineluki's Key Patch (sorry I couldn't remember that correctly)

you can get both on cherrytree.at

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

author=dethmetal
I very much desire to see more and I urge you to continue.

Well that's good to hear and a good place to start :D

I am indeed very inspired by the first installment of Dark Souls and the way the story is delivered.

author=dethmetal
The music was amazing and impressed me a lot. It fit the atmosphere well. Great choice, there.

http://incompetech.com/music/
I was lucky enough to find his library very early in development (like in the first two hours of development). His work has been used by TV shows, CollegeHumor, Movies... and it's Creative Commons as long as he gets credited. I definitely recommend any maker looking for strong professional music to take a look there.

I used a mp3 compressor to (greatly) reduce the size of the game archive, but I have heard a loss of quality as well :| Did you notice?

author=dethmetal
The number one issue I had with this game is the "running" system. Frankly, it's broken and pointless.

My issue is I've always found the default running speed in rm to be a little too quick, like if you were flying across the map like the Flash, but then the next available speed down feels annoyingly slow. The sprint was meant as a compromise but as you probably also noticed (you mentioned broken) sometimes you will start sprinting by accident. I was very doubtful about this and it was added pretty recently in development, but I can't really think of a better solution, so I think I will follow your advice, remove it and give the Ancient the "regular" speed.

It was absolutely not meant to make the game longer, I do feel that would be extremely cheap.

author=dethmetal
My other problem is that the areas didn't seem to connect to each other at all.

If you've felt that way in other areas as well let me know.

I need to copy an event page to each combat group for the summon, and I believe I forgot this one (teehee)

And yea, no reason for the title screen to be too slow. I will make it shorter.

Thank you again for your feedback, but:



:)