development thread

[jack1974]

Yes I managed to finish this F****ING SCREEN!
Lol, took 3 times longer than I thought, but also because I found some bugs myself while testing. Now the crafting seems to work, I made countless tests even for the upgrading to make sure the values were "OK". You can see all my various tests in the screenshot above... autogenerated tons of items and upgraded them comparing the values to other items of same level.
All is left is some better tutorial but I'll do this another day

[jack1974]

interactive tutorial done, so I can say goodbye to this screen at last! *


* obviously during testing people will find bug so it's not a real goodbye, but at least for now

[jack1974]

I've added a few more battle FX so I made a video

[jack1974]

today removed the HP/PP Regen stats from helmets - during my testing the PPRegen was clearly overpowered (indeed in my last 2-3 RPGs the PP regen was a super rare thing).
You could use the Scout class Shock ability and paralize an enemy, and with a 2 PPRegen helmet you could use the skill EVERY TURN!! lol, cheat mode enabled
So now they just provide a FIXED HP/PP bonus. Still powerful enough (getting 2 PP more means you can use that skill one more time) but not game-breaking.

[Ragnus]

How long does the shock ability actually last in PS2? The paralyze/stun spells were a bit too strong in queen of thieves. Fully skilled they did last 5 turns and did trivialzie all normal combat.
I really like that crafting screen, good work. Will those datapads scale somewhat in level and quality to the level of a zone they drop in or to the parties level at that time we acquire them? In my eyes rare and epic blueprints should be more common at higher levels.

[jack1974]

How long does the shock ability actually last in PS2? The paralyze/stun spells were a bit too strong in queen of thieves. Fully skilled they did last 5 turns and did trivialzie all normal combat.

It goes from 3 to 5 turns, HOWEVER I'm also implementing the tweaks done in Cursed Lands (this game is basically coded upon the CL code). This means that if you hit the paralyzed enemy, the duration goes down by 1 for every hit. We found out during CL testing that this simple change balances a lot the skill as you can imagine. Also certain enemies will be able to debuff to reduce the duration.

I really like that crafting screen, good work. Will those datapads scale somewhat in level and quality to the level of a zone they drop in or to the parties level at that time we acquire them? In my eyes rare and epic blueprints should be more common at higher levels.

The datapads are quality/rare/epic, so except for the last tier (legendary that is only for super unique items) all the item you'll be able to craft are good ones.
My idea is that at normal level you can go on even with an average of quality equipment, while Hard/Nightmare you need to work and get rare/epic items to survive.
I will tweak the drops depending on enemy/zones but also remember that you can always upgrade the items in worse case, so even if you get an epic weapon at level 2 you could carry it with you for long time if needed

[Ragnus]

I haven't played through Cursed Lands yet, so I can't comment on those changes. But they sound like a step in the right direction. Normally I wouldn't complain about non Boss Battles, but in QoT you really had to do a ton of those.
Ok, I thought datapads would start at common too. That makes sense and I like your model. I actually wanted to ask you in my post if you can make it so, that you need good gear and constanlty upgrade it for the higher difficulties so that makes me happy.
As a possible dlc I want an optional space pirate battleship that lands on the planet with some high quality datapads and lots of those blue crystals as their cargo. And some though battles, maybe some caged life forms from another planet we haven't seen before or some stolen military prototype tech. I am pretty sure you could come with something cool, you have a pretty creative vein afterall.

[jack1974]

There's already a high-quality vendor shop, the "black market" and Damien introduces it to you as soon as you leave the colony. So you can have already some Epic weapon at level 1, but they're expensive of course. Plus in this kind of game you need to keep, if not the whole party, at least half of it well equipped to succeed

[Ragnus]

Oh I meant it more like a second castle of n'mar or the catacombs in Qot. But the black market sounds awesome too.
From the screenshots above, its seems like upgrading an item does always cost 1 crystal regardless of level but the need of the other materials increases with its level if you want to upgrade it that way? So its best to hang on to the crystals for later and don't use them at level 1 items?
And I know you have designed some tough battles before, that demon that you had to beat to free chalassas, I had to drop the difficulty down to easy out of frustration.

[jack1974]

Well the gharl stones increase the item's stats by +1. So if you always use it to upgrade an item for 10 times, in the end it will be more powerful than if you leveled up the same item using the more common resources there's not a general rule I guess.