Winter Wolves - Seasons Of The Wolf - SOTW 0.79

jack1974 May 04, 2014

I've just uploaded 0.78 which has a ton of changes - to see the new Hunter/Ranger skills set unfortunately you need to restart the game. Hopefully though this is the last time I'll change something requiring a restart!

Needless to say, I'll need new saves at end of this act with this new setup, so if /when you reach the end with 0.78 and you want to email me a few saves, I'd appreciate it :wink:

I'm curious about the new Ranger skill. I limited the turn to 5, and every time it gets used the turns counter decreases by 1, otherwise if you had a full row of enemies attacking with melee they could get -25% of total HP attacking your Ranger which was a bit too much (the ultimate powerful skill!).

Also, now the Hunter has an interesting skill combo: Take Aim + Barrage means could annihilate a row of enemies rather easily. In this first act is hard to fight against many enemies but in later battles yes. I think will probably need to tweak this down a bit, seems rather powerful too

Xantas May 04, 2014

Found a bug in 0.75 and still there in 0.78:

when you choose a trait for Shea at the very beginning of the game, it actually affects Althea's statistics! So Althea starts the game with both the traits choosen for Althea and Shea (found this bug while playing with Shea)

Asonder May 04, 2014

Just finished the preview and already excited for more :mrgreen:

I don't think I got any bugs/errors that haven't already been pointed out, so I'll just give my (tentative) overall impression.

The first act was a bit shorter than I would have liked, and I'm a little bummed that we didn't get to meet many of the characters/party members, but it is only a preview so I can't really complain :roll:

I was playing on normal difficulty for the time being, and I think it was a pretty decent challenge level, at least enough so that I couldn't just go picking fights whenever I felt like it (which is a good thing!).

So far, though, the characters, particularly the twins, aren't quite as memorable as, say, Loren's characters. I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that they're interchangeable as protagonists? I only played as Althea so I'm not sure, but it kinda seems like their dialogue is nondescript enough that it's interchangeable as well, with the result of both of them feeling kind of like the same character. With Loren you were able to avoid that because we weren't looking at Saren and Elenor side by side like we do here, so it wasn't as noticeable. Hopefully we'll see more of the twins' distinct personalities later on in the game, when we've had the chance to shape them via branching dialogue. Again, though, I haven't seen enough to give my full impression.

Oh, and the justification for going into Act 2 made me SO ANGRY. That's not a criticism of the writing, it's just the whole time I was watching it play out I was like, lol this is some bullsh*t.

First off, WTF SHAE? You are my twin brother and you ratted me out when you didn't even need to. I mean, why couldn't we have just stuck with the explanation of "oh yeah, some random wolf must have attacked the guy, not our fault"? If he was dumb enough to go wandering off into the woods for whatever reason, that seems like a perfectly plausible excuse to me. Maybe I just missed something, but like...why is that a good reason to demand someone pay for it? Also Morran was surprisingly cool with, y'know, selling his kid off into slavery. It seems like he had some underlying reason for doing so, but still. Not cool, dad

So, to sum it up: Shae, Morran, and those idiot soldiers, you all fail. Good day.

*ahem* but yeah, getting an emotional response out of a player is a very good thing :lol:

overall I enjoyed the preview, and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Keep up the good work!

jack1974 May 04, 2014

Found a bug in 0.75 and still there in 0.78:

when you choose a trait for Shea at the very beginning of the game, it actually affects Althea's statistics! So Althea starts the game with both the traits choosen for Althea and Shea (found this bug while playing with Shea)

Grr... I thought I fixed this!!! OK will look at it again

So far, though, the characters, particularly the twins, aren't quite as memorable as, say, Loren's characters. I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that they're interchangeable as protagonists? I only played as Althea so I'm not sure, but it kinda seems like their dialogue is nondescript enough that it's interchangeable as well, with the result of both of them feeling kind of like the same character. With Loren you were able to avoid that because we weren't looking at Saren and Elenor side by side like we do here, so it wasn't as noticeable. Hopefully we'll see more of the twins' distinct personalities later on in the game, when we've had the chance to shape them via branching dialogue. Again, though, I haven't seen enough to give my full impression.

Yes this unfortunately is the consequence of having an interchangeable main character. The other characters have a very distinct personality though. Also there's to consider that the twins are young (NOT UNDERAGE! but still young as snow elves) but they lived in Ninim and don't know much about the outside world. They've never been with someone (there are some fun dialogues in the romances about this) and so on. All they know is how to hunt and fight. So are totally inexperienced about the outside world, had a hard education (hope is the right word), Morran is not the best father of the world :lol:

and so on.

yayswords May 04, 2014

Maybe the ranger icon shouldn't be a freaking bow

Also what's this new advice. Heals are good throughout the game. Just recommend picking the heal because it's a safe bet. BTW can't you make it so that if rangers pick a first skill that depends on a certain weapon setup, they start with that weapon setup.

jack1974 May 04, 2014

Yes that should be possible, will try it now

Anima_ May 04, 2014

There's something wrong with the attribute calculation in 0.78. Althea, starting with 18 Strength has only 14 attack, while Shea with 10 Strength has 11. Shea has 11 Agility but only 107 Speed, while Althea has 10 Agility but 111 Speed.

My guess would be that the background traits are not applied to the derived values. You might have call the derived stats method again after the backgrounds.

jack1974 May 04, 2014

Ah ok thanks will check it (on the first level up they should get back fine but is still wrong).

jack1974 May 04, 2014

Just uploaded 0.79. I think for a while won't update anymore unless there are critical bugs, but not about balancing so I can get more opinions (as Anima said I can't change it too often otherwise people play different versions and feedback is useless). Besides if I update I can't go on with next act :wink:

fabulaparva May 04, 2014

Hi, posting some feedback (previous attempt gone to ByteHeaven, don't know what I messed up in my first post ever here).

Managed to beat Beta v0.78 in Nightmare mode. Reached level 6 in the last fight. I wouldn't say it was easy. Used combination Ranger for Shea and Druid for Althea. After teaching Althea ice spike and hail as the first skills, I finally got past the twins' father falling ill and with a LOT of saves, got it through.

Possible bugs:

Not sure if this is how it was supposed to be, but after raising attribute points to 19 in any trait, every additional step eats up 2 attribute points instead of 1.

I got a list of 8 completed quests in my quest book, but the counter on top of the screen shows 7/8 even just before launching the final event.

yayswords May 04, 2014

For those of us who are anal about getting a specific trait at the start, can you make it so that if you scroll the game back you can random a new trait story? Have to remake my twins as it is right now.

Okay bug: Vaelis' Avoidance is causing Bramble Coat damage to attackers. At least something he's doing is causing that... all I'm doing is putting up that and Defend and the combat log says enemies are taking Bramble Coat damage. And they are losing health. And Avoidance loses duration. There isn't even a ranger in the party. He also seems to be getting the Bramble Coat defense bonuses rather than the greater one of Avoidance. BUT he IS getting the correct speed penalty at least

I am skeptical about the way the system considers items to be upgrades. Like it says some random shoulders with far less defense are an "upgrade" for Vaelis, because they provide +22 resistance to Tired. Even if it were +22 to something that actually happens in the first season I would be skeptical. At least resistances should be divided by something before you sum up the stats and have the system compare the items to decide if it's an upgrade.

jack1974 May 05, 2014

Not sure if this is how it was supposed to be, but after raising attribute points to 19 in any trait, every additional step eats up 2 attribute points instead of 1.

I got a list of 8 completed quests in my quest book, but the counter on top of the screen shows 7/8 even just before launching the final event.

Yes the attribute point is OK, is intended.

The quests instead should work, but perhaps in the bandits stealing pelt you finished the quest with a failure (some quests can be failed)? I should change the quests screen to show active, completed and failed quests otherwise is hard to remember

Okay bug: Vaelis' Avoidance is causing Bramble Coat damage to attackers. At least something he's doing is causing that... all I'm doing is putting up that and Defend and the combat log says enemies are taking Bramble Coat damage. And they are losing health. And Avoidance loses duration. There isn't even a ranger in the party. He also seems to be getting the Bramble Coat defense bonuses rather than the greater one of Avoidance. BUT he IS getting the correct speed penalty at least

Ah lol that's weird! I'll try to reproduce it here :lol:

yayswords May 05, 2014

Didn't you fix it so you don't have to spend EVERY attribute point to proceed? I had to increase something I didn't want because the stuff I wanted was in 20+ and I only had 1 point left

fabulaparva May 05, 2014

I got a list of 8 completed quests in my quest book, but the counter on top of the screen shows 7/8 even just before launching the final event.

The quests instead should work, but perhaps in the bandits stealing pelt you finished the quest with a failure (some quests can be failed)? I should change the quests screen to show active, completed and failed quests otherwise is hard to remember

I think I completed all the quests. After failing the pelts-quest during a previous run on lower difficulty, I got pretty adamant about not failing it again - ever. :lol:

However, since it took me quite long to finish the Beta in Nm-mode and it was quite late at that point, I guess it's fairly possible I remember wrong... Yeah, showing failed quests separately in the logbook would help!

And, oh, now that I remember, I really, really, really like the title-screen music. I hope it'll remain in the final product as well.

jack1974 May 05, 2014

Didn't you fix it so you don't have to spend EVERY attribute point to proceed? I had to increase something I didn't want because the stuff I wanted was in 20+ and I only had 1 point left

Ah no! it's one of the things that was on the to-do list, but then actually didn't do it :lol:

will do on next update!!

Also showing failed quests.

And the title music will stay there of course, all tracks are custom made. There are more in the works including a theme song that won't be j-pop like Loren :mrgreen:

Troyen May 05, 2014

I am skeptical about the way the system considers items to be upgrades. Like it says some random shoulders with far less defense are an "upgrade" for Vaelis, because they provide +22 resistance to Tired. Even if it were +22 to something that actually happens in the first season I would be skeptical. At least resistances should be divided by something before you sum up the stats and have the system compare the items to decide if it's an upgrade.

Yes, the individual resistance bonuses are minuscule compared to the other stats (unless you specifically need a whole bunch of one resistance for some reason).

For weapons it's OK right now, though it thinks a 2H is always an upgrade over a 1H instead of counting both 1H and off-hand (for duel-weilding). Armor really should only count Defense, Magic, Speed, HP Regen, and SP Regen since that's what almost all buying decisions are based on.

Troyen May 05, 2014

Quick question: how are the "auto" attributes assigned?

It seems to be random (at least in 0.7.9), especially if I reset and try again. Sometimes it's offering to put points into strength for a druid and I've even seen 3 points into arcane on a ranger (specifically it offered 1 Str, 1 Skill, 3 Arcane).

While "auto" shouldn't be the perfect allocation, perhaps it should favor some attributes over others when suggesting points on a class basis?

Likewise, auto-assigning a random skill might not be the best idea on character creation (I got fireball on one try which is not so helpful in this act). Perhaps automatically pick whatever the fixed skill was back in 0.7 (which was a heal, I think?) and if people want something different they can choose for themselves.

Sidenote: you fixed the "she was discovered to have" typo for Althea beating up goblins but it's still there for the "jump through fire" option.

The Wagon trait where Shea gets touched on the forehead is still increasing his max HP/SP, but not his starting HP/SP. I'm starting a fight at 65/71 and 45/49, which lines up with the 5% bonus from the trait.

yayswords May 05, 2014

It's been a while...

http://imgur.com/rUDjzww

happened when clicking the help button in the tanner shop

BTW I had a party (the 0 con one) finish NM 250-300 exp shy of level 7

Bittersweet_Princess May 05, 2014

[color=#0000BF]Same error for me, while battling after I've activated the bear hunting quest for Vaelis, everytime. I tried to fight the monsters near the traps and also the ratmen[/color]

http://i62.tinypic.com/j5fh9e.jpg" style="max-width:100%">

jack1974 May 05, 2014

Had to go out today, but will do the 0.8 later with the new non-derived stats and fixing those issues (I get the default problem too).

When comparing items the resistances are indeed divided, so that have less weight, at least I think.

The auto-attributes uses weighted random, meaning that for each class there are certain attributes that are more likely to be assigned. But maybe I did some errors, going to check.

As for the skill, either I give the player the choice, or I assign a predefined skill. I think that putting a text "is recommended you learn healing skills" should be enough. Otherwise the only other solution is to eliminate the choice because once a skill is learned is problematic to "unlearn" it, and I don't want to spend too much time on that since is just a small thing happening at the beginning, after 5min of play you can already level up just following the main plot, so...