computer games forum

Download link:
http://www.macgames.biz/games/QoT-0.5.8-all.zip (my backup server)
sorry not going to use CDN for just a prototype! should still download fine.

What's New in 0.5.8
- added a "I" button that shows the various condition. It's obviously not complete yet, in the final version I plan to have the most common buff/debuffs listed
- Kira's Hold The Line skill now also does % damage reduction, after attack/defense calculations are done

What's New in 0.5.7
- Invisibility and Rally now have AOE target, to encourage the join/split party mechanics. Rally also reduces debuffs by 1/2/3 turns now.
- Tornado now targets single enemy
- Bramblecoat now does 3/5/7 damage, and duration increases by 1 so is 3/4/5 turns, meaning that at max level can deal 35dmg total! I think now is a good spell
- starting stats are higher now (both player and enemies), so that 1 point increase has less impact than before in damage computations
- improved Skeleton Warrior AI so they protect damaged allies
- Earthquake has shorter delay
- displayed any relevant enemy info like immunities in enemy details

What's New in 0.5.6
- the skill description now shows properly (before was hidden by the new detailed stat window)
- Kira can't use Protect on herself anymore

What's New in 0.5.5
- the current friendly active character and enemy selected target now are highlighted in a much better way
- the stats value are colored based on current/maximum values: white=no change, green=current > max, yellow=current < max
- fixed problem regarding pre-requisites of some skills (you could learn 3rd level of a skill without knowing the first two)
- changed Thalia's Dodge in an interesting way: now it will DECREASE Speed (since dodging hits would slow down a person) BUT now will always evade the enemy non-magic attacks for the skill duration (so not randomly hit/miss).
- Joannes' Magic Defense raises based on the MAXIMUM Defense value and not current
- enemy level now should be OK for your party and the AGGRO system should work better
- clicking on any character now shows a detailed summary of stats and resistances

What's New in 0.5.4
- shortened some of Thalia's buffs
- now I display the skill points to assign during level up screen
- changed Joanne's Invisibility skill to "Ward" that gives target elemental protection (useful against the magic attacks, probably not very noticeable in this demo)
- changed Dodge so that will give a "real" percentage based dodge. I know I said wouldn't use hit or miss, but I think this works, besides it would be a skill exclusive to the player (Thalia)

What it is
Is the final version of the skills. As you might read in previous thread, I gave up the "combos" idea because was just not practical with a party of just 3 and the goals of this game (avoid long battles like SOTW). So the combo skills are now normal skills. Like before you play against two group of undead and repeat it in endless mode leveling up every time, so you should be able to see all the skills.

Feedback I want
Mostly the skills. I really don't want to change a skill completely (I can't afford to spend as much time as SOTW this time). However if you feel a skill is totally broken, or one missing, I can think about it. But what I want to know if there's a specific skill that is too powerful, or too weak. In particular those who were ex-combo skills.
If a skill is powerful but requires 3 SP and maybe has a long delay, I think is fine since it should compensate it somehow. Anyway, let me know
And obviously, any bugs you find! A skill not behaving as expected, and so on.

What is missing
I still need to design all the items - so you SHOULDN'T be able to go much far in the "endless mode", at least in Hard/Nightmare mode. I made Easy/Normal a bit easier, since this is more a casual game Description/Lore to the existing items have been added though, if you want to read them are funny.
Elemental damage: I just put a temporary elemental resistance sheet in character screen, I need still to design it better. Also need to show a more detailed preview of the selected character (friend or foe) when you click on it in the battle screen.
Elemental resistances will be low numbers too: a value of 1 in Fire will mean that it will resist 1 Fire damage. So a spell that would do 10 Fire damage will do 9 Fire damage. You should see all the info in the battle log. Some enemies will be immune to certain type of damage, like Skeletons are immune to Bleeding (lol obviously). However, the main spell still does damage, it's only the condition that won't trigger. For example a Fire Elemental could be immune to Burning, and so on.

The info button keeps crashing me, though I know it's an alpha.

I'm having a hard time figuring out how many skill points I have to assign. Also kind of hard to tell which character's turn it is. Also, also really hard to know how effective a defensive/healing/regeneration move will be because I don't see maximums.

I thought I would be worried about Purify, since the delay is pretty much the same as the other skills, but 3 SP does run out pretty quick. On the other hand, the SP draining move is sort of strong at negating powers, but I took Rank 3 right off the bat. It does however come with the downside that normal hits kind of hurt.

Finally, I was a bit disappointed that I can't seem to battle in underwear. Since gear isn't implemented yet, I figured...perfect time to try, but no go.

Is Taunt's huge mana cost an oversight or intended?

In other news,
- Purification reduces debuffs by 1 turn even at level 3
- Burning only seems to hurt you if you use the basic melee attack; abilities are safe
- I sorely miss Kira's default aggro

Also Burning on Kira is way better than Bramble Coat on Kira lol.

Troyen wrote:The info button keeps crashing me, though I know it's an alpha.

Uh? with which item? I spent yesterday afternoon clicking the info on all items to make sure the "lore" formatting was OK!

Troyen wrote: I'm having a hard time figuring out how many skill points I have to assign. Also kind of hard to tell which character's turn it is. Also, also really hard to know how effective a defensive/healing/regeneration move will be because I don't see maximums.

The skill point will always be 1 in the final game, probably I should do it even here. In the beginning I give enough XP to be level 3, but maybe is better to just advance by 1 level like will happen in game.
The character turn is not easy to see indeed (there's a green light behind the image). I'll make it more evident!
About the maximum once I implement the detailed stats by clicking on a character will be able to display also the maximums. Probably next thing to do otherwise is also hard to spot potential skill bugs.

Troyen wrote: I thought I would be worried about Purify, since the delay is pretty much the same as the other skills, but 3 SP does run out pretty quick. On the other hand, the SP draining move is sort of strong at negating powers, but I took Rank 3 right off the bat. It does however come with the downside that normal hits kind of hurt.

Yes without a quick SP regen, many spell aren't as powerful as they seem

Troyen wrote: Finally, I was a bit disappointed that I can't seem to battle in underwear. Since gear isn't implemented yet, I figured...perfect time to try, but no go.

That's the "special underwear mode" (tm) available only in the deluxe version!

yayswords wrote:Is Taunt's huge mana cost an oversight or intended?

Oops should be 1 SP, not 10 SP!!

yayswords wrote:In other news,
- Purification reduces debuffs by 1 turn even at level 3
- Burning only seems to hurt you if you use the basic melee attack; abilities are safe
- I sorely miss Kira's default aggro

Also Burning on Kira is way better than Bramble Coat on Kira lol.

Will check that, if I can also determine if a special attack is ranged or not (most aren't) or magical.
Burning does more damage on attacker but should also do more damage on the person is burning

Invisibility stacks
I'm actually getting pretty far on endless mode (but not by exploiting Invisibility stacking mind you), my party is close to 20 now I think. However the 3-wave is always just restarting until the warriors use Counter Attack because if one of them decides to attack Thalia, she dies.

Note however that two other parties, both genuine attempts at ownage, lost on the second and first fight respectively.

The one I'm running now works like this.

Kira
- Protect on Thalia
- Stun one guy
- 5 SP, then skill/con (mostly skill)

Thalia
- Backstab, Throwing Knives and later Sudden Strike
- All out on offense

Joanne
- Purify, Invisibility, Fire Blast
- High will and even higher agility
- No offensive stats at all - Expert Fire Blast will still take half the target's health with the DoT alone, although it's mostly Thalia bringing the damage anyway

Update: Okay, level 21 now, but had enough of restarting until Thalia doesn't get instagibbed

Oops the invisibility stack is quite a big bug
Thalia gets killed fast because you're putting all point on offense right?

Well yeah. Not sure she could bring the deepz if I didn't though. It's an awesome strategy once Kira gets off the Protect.

Maybe I could build Kira for agi/skill next time because raw health is pretty meaningless. I got it to improve Purify but it improves DoT's just as much.

Well anyway if you have any suggestions on skill TWEAKS (that is changing the values only), I'm all ears
(and of course bugs like the invisibility one!)

Well one pretty big change would actually be removing SP costs from everything... I think delay would be enough. ATM it feels really expensive to get mana. If we can get other stats from gear then I guess it won't be as bad.

But for a smaller one, I'm pretty scared by the delay on Thalia's buffs. One of the parties that failed very early was based on Rally and Distracting Blows but it took too long to set those up.

For the mana maybe I can just change Rest skill delay to be like a normal attack. That is a quick way to regain 1SP
Will check Thalia's skills duration then!