SOTW 0.8.24.18 - Second Act Beta!

[jack1974]

I think I definitely noticed this as well on magic bolts and most likely also on my druid's elemental nukes. None of my mages were resurrected in there, so I didn't get to compare the power before and after and see if the 2H-penalty vanished from them, too, like it did vanish from Krimm.

Yes I'm fixing that now also good that you remembered me of the "vanish on kill" thing, forgot to check that

I finished Act II in NM-mode, but I must've missed some kills, quests or areas, as most of my chars were left on level 12 at the end, instead of somewhere between 13 and the maximum of 14.

Well wait, that's MY ESTIMATE so you need to tell me. Also, I didn't implement the XP bonus if you do all the quests and discover all locations, so you're missing that too. I want to get some feedback from people to see what is the max number of locations/quests they can reach, and then code the bonus (won't be that big but I think at least 1000XP).

In general, I think that the difficulty was good for NM-mode. Some individual fights felt a bit over the top. Most difficult ones were:
+ The lizardmen in the sewers (especially if one happened to get 3 mages at the same time)
+ Assassin boss (I read that the arena slaves aggression-level was lowered after I got through that part and the assassin boss, so this might be fine now )
+ Kiduu -fighters... considering that it's just the start of the act, when you have the luck of getting 6 of them
+ Getting out of the Lugal area in the beginning of the act, if you repeatedly counter 3 of them

The lizardmen are due to the bug of caster's damage because considers the staff 2h weapon. Now that I'm fixing this, should be much easier: ice spell of Druid went from 6 to 34
I'm mostly worried about the Kiduu and the Lugal, since happens early in the story, so might make those easier, at least during the first part (it should be like that in last update though, maybe you played it before).

Final boss fight was on the easy side. Not sure if I should blame Jariel or Rowinda for that.

OK. That should be hard. Though I think might wait for Anima new AI battlecode to make a very bastard Yeldin that debuffs all your party members

There were some fights that might've benefitted or suffered from bugs, though. Like the fact that Krimm got all her powers back in the tunnels after a resurrection...but then again if the mages were penalized too... hard to judge. Also, one could cheat with the bombs since they can be thrown at the back row again....which is a bug.

Yes definitely!! Damn bombs

Question about Chalassa's personal quest: How does the number of guards you kill affect the number of guards joining the fight in the end? I only left 1 alive, but still 3 of those romanced-to-death guards joined the fight.

I think you stumbled in a bug, sometimes would show up an extra guard. There should be guard left alive + 1 (or 2, don't remember now). So 1 alive = 3 might be right

And...an anatomical question: Why do all the male elves have nipples but the Dingirran males (Riley & master of the pits) don't?

Ah they don't have them? lol I didn't even notice!

I'll post some general feedback on the skills a bit later. Should I put it here or in the skills thread?

Yes probably better! I'm tweaking some Chalassa's skills but want to hear about the others too.

[yayswords]

Also because wouldn't be possible, I would had to rebalance act1 again, and game would never be out, etc etc as you know.

Yeah, and that is the only argument in that post I am buying too. Have you seen these damage caps in any other game? Can you name one where you can increase your offensive stats but not get more damage out of it? If you know any, you're gonna need them for the Loren 2 megapost

P.S. Don't nerf Bleeding Strike or I can't do her flashback quest again

[renke_]

strange, only one shop displays the fame correctly:

Hm really weird. Send saves please, want to check :) I don't know how could happen, seems like the shop weren't updated to use the Fame from the right Season, but I am looking at the code right now and should work :o

just mailed you the save game

[jack1974]

Well perhaps in the other games is still done but in a different way, like less freedom and always balancing enemy defense so you never hit the max cap, etc. I think here the problem was the initial design, with all this relative damage stuff. Not sure, for sure games with big teams have more time to think about everything, not me sadly
Actually I could do a SMALL TWEAK, put a code that works only in act2 and forward. So I wouldn't need to worry about act1 I might do that, just a small increase for any extra attack. But still your Chalassa's values are really out of the norm!!

Maybe send me the saves so I can check ?

Bleeding Strike is fine, is No Chances and Acrobatics that are too powerful

renke:thanks!

[yayswords]

Hmm, I don't find Acrobatics overpowered. I don't use it that much. Obviously if all +attack modifiers are multiplicative (= if Protect, Rally and Acrobatics give a 1.3*1.2*1.2=1.872=+87% attack bonus) then it's an ingredient in that soup.

On the fire demon in the steam tunnels (I said sewers I know ) Chalassa's bleed hit the tick cap (5% health/tick) without any attack buffs. And that's really powerful against a boss. I'm gonna find a suitable save for you if I can anyway.

The Master of the Pits is making your game too easy for me. I never buy consumables but now I'm gonna do it just so he can't take my gold. Bastard.

[renke_]

Obviously if all +attack modifiers are multiplicative (= if Protect, Rally and Acrobatics give a 1.3*1.2*1.2=1.872=+87% attack bonus) then it's an ingredient in that soup.

afaik they are additive 1 (base) + .3 + .2 + .2 = 1.7 - but salted with some limits (both lower and upper bounds) and divided by target's defence with random factors.

[jack1974]

Yes that's the problem, most buffs stacks. In many RPGs, buffs don't stack. This because I defined the buffs differently, let's say if I had "Attack Bonus", then I could have it trigger with Rally, etc etc so they would just stack the duration, but not the effects. Instead I wanted to be able to see clearly what are the effects of each skill, but I realize it was a mistake now.
But is a bit too late to change that
Anyway, I'm going to go on like this. I checked the hours amount I spent on this game and is insane, double than Loren and I had already the engine ready and knew it well. I will already raise price by +$5 when I release it, but if I spend even more time then I should price it at $50 to make worth my time, and it would be a commercial suicide, so... nah won't ever touch again the combat code. Only tweaking skills will be enough, will probably already take a week of works just that minimum!

[fabulaparva]

Also, I didn't implement the XP bonus if you do all the quests and discover all locations, so you're missing that too. I want to get some feedback from people to see what is the max number of locations/quests they can reach, and then code the bonus (won't be that big but I think at least 1000XP).

Well, I'll probably play next in Easy/Normal-mode, right from the start of Act 1, I'll report back on how high can I get the levels then. This one I started from an old NM-mode save, where I hadn't reached quite the maximum possible XP for Act 1, so that might have a tiny effect as well.

I'm mostly worried about the Kiduu and the Lugal, since happens early in the story, so might make those easier, at least during the first part (it should be like that in last update though, maybe you played it before).

I definitely did play it before the updates, I played the first 3 quests of the act with 0.8.11.

Final boss fight was on the easy side. Not sure if I should blame Jariel or Rowinda for that.

OK. That should be hard. Though I think might wait for Anima new AI battlecode to make a very bastard Yeldin that debuffs all your party members

Once he had "multiplied", he did take 2 of my party members out in one strike, but that was pretty much it. I debuffed him way more than he debuffed me.

And...an anatomical question: Why do all the male elves have nipples but the Dingirran males (Riley & master of the pits) don't?

Ah they don't have them? lol I didn't even notice!

Well, Master of the Pits in Act I kind of made me except that none of them would have them... I just didn't want to say anything about him before, because he has that huge scar on his chest (although it's not located so that it would explain such a "handicap"), accidents happen on the arena etc etc...... aaaaand I'll better stop now

[yayswords]

Dialogue gave me the impression I would heal to full between dwarf and elf pitfights. Didn't happen. Intended?

[jack1974]

Well, I'll probably play next in Easy/Normal-mode, right from the start of Act 1, I'll report back on how high can I get the levels then. This one I started from an old NM-mode save, where I hadn't reached quite the maximum possible XP for Act 1, so that might have a tiny effect as well.

All right that will be helpful. Just to be clear the quest/locations are reset on every season though.

I definitely did play it before the updates, I played the first 3 quests of the act with 0.8.11.

Ah actually I only changed the level but the amount is the same, I mean is random but you could stumble into 6 of them. I think will make them even more easy for the first round of exploration on next update

Dialogue gave me the impression I would heal to full between dwarf and elf pitfights. Didn't happen. Intended?

Ah no, you should heal fully indeed. Going to check!