SICKSINZ'S PROFILE

author=kumada

author=sicksinz
I will admit that it might be slightly dark tower based but only the desert scenes because I haven't read much past the beginning of the book lol.

No problem. You've officially read all of the good stuff in that series, then. :p

author=sicksinz
Items will all have fairly different stats and whatnot. What you see now really only gives you that base stat due to the difficult nature of the boss in the tunnels.

For me, he wasn't terribly hard. He was just kinda predictable. Lots of hp, hits for high damage. I had stocked a crapton of licorice roots, and I burned through those to survive the battle.

I feel like it's hard to make early bosses really exciting, but there are ways to do it. Even though the player will have fairly limited resources at their disposal early in the game, giving them a few options to shift a scenario in their favor (expendable temporary stat buff items, skills that drop field effects, etc,) or giving the boss a complex attack pattern (warm up and then strike, summon objects onto the field that can then be attacked, cast spells that can only be interrupted by high damage, etc) will make for a less brutally grindy but still challenging fight.

Also, re: pistol whip. For a 50 rp skill, it's pretty bad. Single target weak hit for something that costs half your gauge? I feel like dropping the rp cost to 15 would make it viable and introduce some rhythm to combat. Shoot, whip, shoot, whip, etc. It's better than shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, almost ready to whip, shoot, encounter over. :p

author=BareGamer
Well I'm going to finish up the demo and post a list of things I noticed. I'll have them up in about an hour or so. :)

author=BareGamer
I noticed that Pistol Whip isn't used in combat all that much. Most battles were over before I could build up enough rage to use it. Perhaps lowering the cost would help a bit.

author=Caz

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He shouldn't base his game's title on how popular the word "the" is at the beginning of famous games. :P Instead he should consider what this "Ender's Amethyst" is. Is there more than one or is it particularly important? If there is only one, then I believe it does merit a "The" at the start of the title.. if he chooses. He may want that to remain unknown.

But then again, it is his game. Maybe there is no reasoning behind the wording of his title. :D

(Oh and subbbbbed.)

author=kumada

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Okay, played a little bit. Gotta say, liking what I see. It's not all smooth sailing, and I'll do my best to highlight what I thought were rough patches, and what I thought really shone. Overall, though, I think this has a lot of promise.

-opening cinematic felt surprisingly poignant, right up until the can-throw. I feel like this game keeps heading for serious territory, and then sharply veering off. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was something I noticed.

-the writing is generally great, with some occasional patches of awkwardness. I loved the dialog between the two bandit guards, and I kind of wish they were a reoccurring thing in the story.

-combat is pretty vanilla. It seems to involve a lot of attack-spam to build up rage--which is better than just endless attack-spam, but still not fantastic. Don't get me wrong. I like the rage gauge. But I think it might be worth taking a page out of Princess Princess' book and having rage, mp, and regular attacks. The mp meter could be absolutely tiny, but having something else to do in combat other than spam attacks and wait for a finisher would do a lot to pick up the battle system.

-by that same token, the "shoot twice" combat animation for the wanderer starts feeling painfully slow after the fifth time it's used. Speeding up the animation (if that's possible) would hugely cut down on combat waiting.

-post-battle chatter is pretty nice. I think it's a good bit of creative flair.

-Definitely getting some Dark Tower vibes from the plot, but it a good way. This doesn't feel like a King book. The characters feel sympathetic and human. But the universe and the wanderer both feel very Dark Towery, and that I like.

-About equipment: it's standard rpg fare to have the player go from town to town getting better stuff. That said, it's not always interesting. One way to help make equipment interesting and strategic again is to make sure every piece of gear does something. Not just raising attack by set amounts, but adjusting other values, too. Maybe the leather armor has higher defense than regular clothing, but regular clothing doesn't reduce your speed. Or maybe the flintlock hits for more damage than the revolver, but it can only fire every other round.

-the smuggler's mail service is a great idea. Full approval.

-"the words cut through mikael like a warm knife" should really just be "like a knife". It's a pretty narmy moment otherwise.

-Encounter rate is extremely high. Maybe fewer encounters at higher difficulty for more xp?

-demo finished. All in all, despite a few rough patches, I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing how it improves.

author=BareGamer

author=sicksinz

author=BareGamer
"The" in a game title isn't as appealing to me. I think it's fine as it is.

Ender's Amethyst: Armored Eternity...

Yup. Leave it like that.

Can't please everyone.

Then think about RPGs. Then think of the successful ones. Then think how the successful ones don't have "the" in them. :)