NHUBI'S PROFILE

Hey BlackLilith, Well Done! That ghost is HARD. As far as Xebec, there is a bottle of spirits recipe, and since it has hops, yeast and barley in it, I consider it beer.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah it does add an extra bit of fun because you really want to know what those treasures are (though sometimes it's a monster). I really wish I could remember what triggered it