Upcoming 0.92 changes

[jack1974]

The 0.92 will be mostly a bugfix/balancing release. It will fix the bugs:
- quick help showing below the battlefield art
- you can close the equipment also clicking outside the red ribbon
- help in random encounter showing below the encounter window
- new map overlay toggling with 3 options: you can choose to see the icons+labels, icons for big/known places and labels for zones/temporary places, or no labels at all

Plus some romances and typos I think (not sure which ones, but I will include the latest updates from Aleema!).

Regarding balancing: as I expected, making the game too easy made some veteran RPG players unhappy So I'm going to revamp the Hard difficulty mode. I found out the main problem, veteran RPG players tend to equip their characters VERY WELL. It was Elmsdor who sent me a savegame so I could check: all powerful items, characters average defense was 70-80, while myself while testing I reached only around 60, at same level as him!! (and using cheat codes lol).
So clearly for those players the battles are too easy and there's no challenge for them! I'm going to put back Hard difficulty as it was originally, so that means: VERY MEGA ULTRA SUPER DIFFICULT, and nobody should play at that level, unless you're a HARDCORE RPG PLAYER.

This way everyone will be happy. Casual players play at EASY, RPG players (but not those who spend hours grinding to get better equipment) will play at NORMAL, while those monsters veteran RPG players can enjoy the game at HARD

[Elmsdor]

There are a few major quips as I'm playing Loren, heck, I spent 8 hours playing it last night instead of my usual MMOs

Firstly, I noticed there was FAR less personal character development, compared to Planet Stronghold. Understandably, this is a first multi person project, and it's amazing. In PS, Lisa often wandered alone, and with just 1-2 other people to do quests.

Of course, in relating to that. Chapter 2 is a maelstorm and everyone is just trying to survive, so I can understand the high level of noise. But I never got to understand who liked fish, or who liked berries. Heck, I never knew Elenor's or Loren's taste .

Will chapter 4 embody more personal time? In PS, high affection often had private quests for her companions, for new powers, or new weapons. I found every toon in PS, had a quirk.

Also, I think this is the MOST dangerous part of Loren. It's too easy. The EXPONENTIAL stat scaling system meant, that the PC (player characters) got really quickly over powered. I will attach a boss file for you.

In this case, Kahn, was a Golem Boss, an alpha. And the MOST dmg he did was 10 dmg, whereas my toons were doing 100-200.

Either the stats gain was too high, or the npcs never scaled right. I tried loading Loren 0.8, the first Beta, and 0.9. Check it yourself. The FIRST goblin fight, in 0.8, the goblins hit for 15. In 0.9+, the goblins hit for 2. I felt this were going to be odd after that.

The skills never balanced right, in that, level 1-2 spells were often better than 3, but we can worry about that in expansion.

I've attached the Golem Boss fight. Try it. Loren 2 shots everything. Page 6, save 6.

Perhaps mobs base stats are too low? You can either buff them, or give them lvl 4-6 skills to use, which PCs NEVER get to use. I notice the Hell Hound, used Inferno 2, which did 8 dmg to everyone o_O. Maybe let them use Inferno 5 which does 50-60 instead.

Chapter 1 was balanced. Every mob hit hard enough to do damage, but MOST importantly, if you get hit 3-4 times, you were staggered. And Stagger is the best debuff in game. The NPCs archer also need to shoot my mages/archers too, instead of just Loren, who is never going to die. I understand the aggro threat, but maybe some classes, like Sniper, can ignore aggro.

PS had the best mechanic. Defense is NEVER perfect, unless it's an elemental or psi.

I love the story though. Give Aleema my props. My girlfriend commented that I am as obnixious as Rei, and baby, is she right

[jack1974]

Tested the new difficulty with your savegame, and I think now should be harder. I managed to defeat Khan, but wasn't that easy
Will upload the 0.92 later today. About the character development, as said by email there won't be personal quests in the main game (they'll be in the expansion) but if you do camp talk, there's huge amount of personal stories, details and background stuff for each character

[Aleema]

I believe we discussed if we should only trigger input from party members, and not from everyone you've collected so far (implying you leave no one at camp), and since the number of party members wasn't concrete in the beginning (and was potentially ALL of them, with 8+ party system), we decided that restricting character dialogue based on your party would just make things needlessly difficult. I thought having camp dialogue and romance cutscenes was personal character development, though? Saren and Elenor are far more customizable than the PS leads, so you will be deciding their favorite food, essentially. When you chose between Saren and Elenor, you also choose their personal background story, and then you shape their personality yourself. This might be a clash between expecting a JRPG main character and getting a Western RPG one? Or just bad planning/writing on my part. That's entirely possible.

We plan on writing character quests for each character for the expansion, which should be that personal time I guess you're talking about? Most of the "alone time" is in the romances and camp dialogues, sorry. Hopefully all the characters are still distinguishable from each other, personal quests or not.

[Elmsdor]

I think the interactions that you used or included was spot on, that drawing out the right dialogues and personal level was right. This was very noticeable with Rei and Myyrth as well as Loren and Amukikai, how they both need to be related and intercede one another.

I agree, that restrictions to the party would be hard, and having them at base camp, similar to PS, was good. I think what I meant was the meaningless trivia which I enjoyed in PS, was minorly absent. Understandably, their warring situation meant Elenor never got time to just walk around the camp alone and discover other people's hobbies. Aka, I cannot write a wiki on them. However, the cutscenes was outright capitivating. I even took screen shots and a save for each unlocked scene, their development and easing of trust I like elves, I liked Rei, and so did my girlfriend too. Loren amused me when she finally cracked a joke! Was more exciting then a boss battle! (grin grin)

Yes, the personal quests in expansions would be perfect. Bad writing? Psh! I plan to buy another copy later! Granted, JRPG is more hollywood compared to Western one, which is probrably where I am learning the distinction, haha. The initial character creation was great, props to you both there.

Looking forward to more harder action . And seriously, the shops need to stock some fur pants/plate pants. There's only chain in there! Half the toons are pantsless. (which isn't a bad thing). In fact, I would love to buy/find any overpriced decent equipment, instead of ANOTHER fine standard sword. I think a slight shop bug too. As soon as you visit Grimoire's, every other shop becomes Grimoire, until you reload.

Looking forward to a war time in the new update. Savoring chapter 3 for just that occasion, looking forward to it

I haven't started Chapter 3 as I wanted to savor the game a bit longer.

And agreed that the variables may be much in Loren. Do you agree with my Stagger assessment?

Will continue to support. Time for Reedit Indie.

Cheers

[Aleema]

Thanks for the reply, I am bit on edge with the release of the game, so I go through mood swings of "I did everything wrong!!" and question everything I wrote. Now that I know better what you're talking about, I think I understand the disconnect. For one, I'm struggling to keep up with the broad strokes as it is, since I'm writing the entirety of the game, the romances, the camp dialogues, planning the expansion, and then going back to script them (expressions, sounds, music). But you know what I think the real reason is? That this is a fantasy game and not a modern-like sci-fi game. I think my brain is just wired differently when expressing these characters, since I'm not entirely sure what kind of hobbies or food these kind of people would have to begin with. Does chess exist? I'm not sure. Apolimesho would probably play it, definitely. Loren would probably struggle to learn and flip over the game board when she inevitably lost to him. But chess would have to exist for me to write something like that. Since I'm not sure if things I'm familiar with even exist in this fantasy world, that's probably why I'm avoiding them. I'd need to world-build (which I LOVE, LOVE doing, it's just a bit time consuming and Jack wants this game out some day). So hopefully when I get my mitts on PS that the personal trivia improves.

[Elmsdor]

Exceptional analogy with the chessboard. You captured both our thoughts there!

I can truly appreciate the enormity of you shaping the world and lore of the toons, to make the story both fluid, as well as inject other sequences which can overlap, both in and out of camp. I do believe you're excellent as all the logistical handling though so keep it up! This is extremely noticeable when you go to visit the Grand Tree and Grimoire prior to embarking on the unification quest. Whoever you visit first, will also appear on the second location.

As for the trivia, lore and nuances of every culture, city, character and emotion... No matter what exists in our world (or wiki), Avarorn, is YOUR world, mistress!

Continue shaping and moulding it, as we continue to enjoy and awe!

Agreed, the game needs to come out to do more. Which is why I pre ordered everything Keep it up, y'all!

Cheers

[jack1974]

About the personal development, remember also that PS had 8 party members, while Loren has 9 (12 in the expansion), and also depends how the plot is written. They don't really have a "headquarters". So, while in camp they don't really live their daily lives. Just for example, if there was a HQ in Grimoire, you could visit Apolimesho in his Wizard studio, or you could see Amukiki training and winning tournaments in the Arena, and so on. But in the camp... I think Aleema already did an awesome work considering the limitations of the story/situations!

And seriously, the shops need to stock some fur pants/plate pants. There's only chain in there! Half the toons are pantsless. (which isn't a bad thing). In fact, I would love to buy/find any overpriced decent equipment, instead of ANOTHER fine standard sword. I think a slight shop bug too. As soon as you visit Grimoire's, every other shop becomes Grimoire, until you reload.

Hmm I need to check, maybe I forgot to add them in the items database About the Grimoire shop bug that's strange! It should change when you exit, but maybe I forgot to set some variables, going to look.

I haven't started Chapter 3 as I wanted to savor the game a bit longer.

If you can wait a few hours, version 0.92 will be online with new Hard difficulty level, which I think you'll find more challenging

And agreed that the variables may be much in Loren. Do you agree with my Stagger assessment?

Yes, that's also a consequence of the equipment. Plate/Chain armor also give a bonus to the Stagger resistance, so if you wear a full plate suit you're more resistant to staggering indeed. In the new Hard level I have increased all the basic values of enemies (independently from Easy/Normal which will stay the same).
Thanks for your support

[Elmsdor]

I think Jack summed it up perfectly, where everyone is sequestered in the camp instead of their usual areas, so it is a HUGE limitation. Ahh, we can only dream I guess, for now But yes, Aleema did dramatically amazing within her world, hence I screened each cutscene to reread. I liked Karen's for some reason...

Woo, yay for new version soon :D Also, bigger better, expensive stuff (and mobs) be great. In PS, there was the basic Sniper Rifle (6-12) in first chapter, and second chapter had Revolving Piercer (12-28) which is item worthy.

Whether it is foresight or hindsight, Plate armor does increase the threshold, but come with MASSIVE speed loss. As being Staggered is a loss of - 20 speed, a full set of plate is almost - 15. So I think you covered their bare naked butt's pre emptively
Which is something for us Vet's to work out. This is what we like. Choices.

Ahah, Normal needs to be harder too, just a lil

Rock the weekend there you two!

Cheers

[jack1974]

Woo, yay for new version soon :D Also, bigger better, expensive stuff (and mobs) be great. In PS, there was the basic Sniper Rifle (6-12) in first chapter, and second chapter had Revolving Piercer (12-28) which is item worthy.

Yes but in PS there also were 1/10 of Loren's items so was much easier to balance also because of that. The items you find in vendors are randomized, it takes the average item value of your party, and then picks an item from the database based on its cost, ranging from 1,5 the value to 0,02 (so you can get items 50% more expensive than your average, and also cheaper ones). I think I'm going to add the chance to see in the shop, some very powerful item (but should be rare).

Whether it is foresight or hindsight, Plate armor does increase the threshold, but come with MASSIVE speed loss. As being Staggered is a loss of - 20 speed, a full set of plate is almost - 15. So I think you covered their bare naked butt's pre emptively
Which is something for us Vet's to work out. This is what we like. Choices.

Yes that was planned indeed. Cool that at least one thing is OK! Also you were right about the Grimoire shop bug, thanks for finding it out. Another things fixed in the version 0.92!