Let's talk combat

[Anima_]

In the 0.74 I'm uploading, the attack/speed is slightly more, but defense is definitely lower. I think should make battles shorter I've also tweaked the giant spider, before was red (3 levels over your party) and now is orange. I think just lowering his level by 1 was enough, now is hard but possible to win I think.

The mechanics of Hidden in Shadows and such are good indeed. I don't think can add more right now though, since the Druid has all the slots full with the single/area of effect damaging spells. The Ranger has many skills influenced by the type of weapon used though, I think that was cool too

Actually I don't think that's a good idea. It will force players into yayswords turtle strategy even more. Generally the balance of offence and defence was fine for most enemies. (Though this might have been an effect of your dynamic scaling system. My balanced party might have lead to more reasonable enemies stats.) The actual problem was that some classes were to weak in the offence department. Vaelis for example was usually dealing twice as much damage as my Althea. And he was going trough most enemies like a buzz saw. Even though Althea was a two handed weapon Ranger. Though I do think she was gimped by the quest XP bug.

And I saw your post Anima, I really hope I am wrong and that someone is conquering 0.73 nightmare mode without relying on longevity spells and will tell the tale

That would be me. I didn't use that spell before level 6 and that only because you praised it that much. As a whole I'm quite unimpressed and I'd rather taken a different skill. It certainly works, but it's boring as hell. Though I didn't have the time to finish the season so far. Only got as far as the start of chapter 3. But I completed all the side quests that were available. Since that brought me to level 6 already there probably aren't that many boss fights left.

[yayswords]

Color me confused, I get destroyed if I don't turtle. I'm gonna try again with 0.73 then. If you beat the giant spider you beat the game practically so obviously it works. How fast did you kill it?

I probably "praised it too much" because I declared war on the pacing of the game and managed to invent a playstyle where I never had to go back and rest (or even use the tavern). But still I always felt enemies were too durable for any other approach than an overpowered outlasting strategy.

[jack1974]

I just uploaded 0.74 now, since fixes a lot of bugs anyway. But about your points:

In general the skills are a bit on the expensive side. Most of the time you need to go eat or sleep after a single battle in Nightmare. That's not very fun and at least I think it takes away from what the SP mechanic was designed for in dungeon crawlers. It also makes SP regeneration values on equipment a joke. If a simple skill costs 20 SP, having one point of regeneration is useless. Of course it works in the other direction too, having 20 SP regeneration would result in infinite SP.

Yes, I didn't want to make the SP/HP regen too much important like was in Loren, have some impact yes, but not a lot. Later in the game there are higher regen items. If you have two rings and a necklace all with +2 SPRegen that will change things, but I want it to be a high-level thing, not early in the game.

In summary I don't think a completely random shop works very well.

No the problem was in the definition There is NO "HeavyEdged" or "HeavyFlail" or similar, so there aren't ANY 2h randomized items in shops that's the only reason why you couldn't find one. I now have added it (sadly, I had already uploaded version 0.74) and voilà:

Though I also rarely paid attention to the info panel at the left, having a stagger value indicator on the mainview might be a good idea.

What you mean, beside the staggered condition? or you mean the bar filling up for the stagger value?

This may sound quite a bit critical but I did have fun with the game so far, some battles were pretty challenging. Though the low number of abilities and skill uses do limit how much strategy can be used in a battle. The positioning system does make a huge difference though.

Cool Yeah right now is a bit like this, but later in the game things should work better (I did some tests with full party obviously). I probably even made this part longer than needed (I mean the sidequests), since you have few party members.

All that said I still stand by my previous post. Don't rush balance changes. Collect reports from different people and sessions first. Otherwise everyone will talk about a different version and some things are changed that were only a problem for a specific play style or strategy.

Yes, I have tweaked some values but from now on will fix the bugs but think carefully before doing a gameplay change. If an enemy in Nightmare is really too hard will change that encounter (like I did with the Snow Spider) rather than touching the global values, since that can screw also other encounters, so... better not

[jack1974]

Lol two new posts while was replying. Anyway version 0.74 is up with a lots of fixes and about this:

Actually I don't think that's a good idea. It will force players into yayswords turtle strategy even more. Generally the balance of offence and defence was fine for most enemies. (Though this might have been an effect of your dynamic scaling system. My balanced party might have lead to more reasonable enemies stats.) The actual problem was that some classes were to weak in the offence department. Vaelis for example was usually dealing twice as much damage as my Althea. And he was going trough most enemies like a buzz saw. Even though Althea was a two handed weapon Ranger. Though I do think she was gimped by the quest XP bug.

I think the problem was twice:
- 2h weapons frakked so you couldn't get a decent one
- the traits minigame assigning both boosts to the first char only

At this point I'm probably going to upload the fix for the 2h weapon too since indeed is a bit impossible to play with a 2h ranger in current one. Just waiting a bit in case some more bugs shows up

[Anima_]

I think it was six actions from everyone. Though only at the third try and with a casualty. Unfortunately I don't have a save from before for it any more. I definitely did it before the Necromancer fight, that's my earliest save and only that quest remains active. Most of the damage was done by fireballs.

[yayswords]

Six actions from everyone? That would probably a record time just to survive for my ranger/hunter party. Do you manage to stagger the boss or something?

[yayswords]

This build is totally different. I'm not even trying to outlast now though. A very aggressive party. If something like this would have worked in previous versions I'm a bit ashamed to have caused such commotion :P a battle with a fully rested party hasn't yet been challenging at all.

[Anima_]

I just uploaded 0.74 now, since fixes a lot of bugs anyway. But about your points:
Yes, I didn't want to make the SP/HP regen too much important like was in Loren, have some impact yes, but not a lot. Later in the game there are higher regen items. If you have two rings and a necklace all with +2 SPRegen that will change things, but I want it to be a high-level thing, not early in the game.

That's a decision I can support. Still the skills are too expensive in the beginning. Reducing the cost to two thirds or a half would still work just fine.
@ Shops
That leaves the potions though.

@ Stagger display
Yes. Probably just the percentage though, not the whole bar. Maybe under the health value?

@ # Sidequests
No those were pretty cool. Though pacing them out a bit more might be a good idea. Having all available during the first free period makes it seem like you have to complete them in that period. Of course I'd probably do that anyway even if it's a bit expensive. Bonus XP for finding all quests and locations was a good idea by the way.

@ # Skills
It might be a good idea to have a skill every second level instead of every third for the first season. (Read for the first six levels)

I probably "praised it too much" because I declared war on the pacing of the game and managed to invent a playstyle where I never had to go back and rest (or even use the tavern). But still I always felt enemies were too durable for any other approach than an overpowered outlasting strategy.

Ah so you belong to the miser players. My strategy was usually to get rid of the weakest link first, heal and repeat. This time I'm also going for a more offensive skill selection for Althea. She had Guard and the SP heal. Though I'd rather not loose Guard.

@ Spider
Yeah I'm pretty sure I staggered it. I also burned it and had it marked by Vaelis.

[jack1974]

That leaves the potions though.

Did you check in the potions shop (Shagala)? there are healing potions there

Yes. Probably just the percentage though, not the whole bar. Maybe under the health value?

I'll see, the screen is already quite crowded, will make some tests first!

No those were pretty cool. Though pacing them out a bit more might be a good idea. Having all available during the first free period makes it seem like you have to complete them in that period. Of course I'd probably do that anyway even if it's a bit expensive. Bonus XP for finding all quests and locations was a good idea by the way.

Yes I guess I can make them show later, but I didn't want to put any constraints to the player
About the quests/location I think I put wrong numbers in the checks, the right ones should be: 7 quests and 6 locations. Will update it on next update.

It might be a good idea to have a skill every second level instead of every third for the first season. (Read for the first six levels)

Yes that could be interesting, so in the end you have:
1 skill on start + 1 on level 2 + 1 on level 4 + 1 on level 6 = 4 skills when you're level 6. Then the others would be every 3 levels. I need to make sure to update the descriptions, but makes sense to give them earlier.

[renke_]

Okay, the spider on nightmare with hunter, druid and Vaelis (all lvl 3):

1. spider: attack. [ouch. my poor front line]
2. druid: nature's touch
3. Vaelis: throw axe
4. hunter: big bomb

=> won :)