35 replies to this topic

[SCKnuckles]

would be fine with another blind LP of mine with this?

[Mani Kanina]

SCKnuckles: That's entirely up to you. But as I said in the original post: This is not complete yet, and I can't guarantee that save files will be compatible with the final release.

[Arkia]

Played this in ZC 2.50 build 28.

 

Overall impression was that money seemed scarce and most items beyond the very basic starter items were very expensive. Almost all the money I got from the first two areas went towards buying the upgraded spear and the armor since I wasn't sure how useful the other stuff like the spells would be. Because of this I didn't buy any of the spells until the end of the third area. Speaking of the third area there seemed to be a pretty big difficulty spike there (and many literal spikes!). The rooms with entire floors made out of spikes that you get locked into are particularly bad, especially since you lose progress on death. The boss of this area was quite difficult as well. I was only barely able to beat it after buying potions and a couple spells.

 

Certain sounds are also pretty loud, like the text boxes and spike traps hitting walls. (especially when there are lots of spike traps in a room)

 

Possible Bugs:

- Restarting ZC and loading a save file for this quest places the Magic Tome on the A button every time. (probably specific to this build though)

- Lanmolas have a number appear on them as if they've taken damage when they spawn.

- Despite getting to Level 13 by the end of the beta my magic stat never actually increased.

- The teleporter from the end of the first area to the beginning of the third area never unlocked.

- What I assume is a shortcut in the second area can't actually be used. Can't go north from screen 32 on B6F even though the blocks are down on that screen and the one above it. (See Screenshot 1)

 

Other Things:

- The chest in screen 76 on B9F should be moved to the top row of blocks. Opening the chest doesn't stop the spikes from advancing and hitting the player which is a bit unfair. (See Screenshot 2)

- The second area gave much less EXP compared to the other areas. I gained 4 levels beating the first and third areas, but only 2 after finishing the second area.

- The save tile is very picky about where you have to stand to use it.

 

Screenshot 1

 

Screenshot 2

Edited by Arkia, 23 October 2015 - 05:02 PM.

[Deedee]

Yeah, I think you need to use an "Abs" for the save tile. Exact coordinates are not going to cut it

[coolgamer012345]

Yeah, I think you need to use an "Abs" for the save tile. Exact coordinates are not going to cut it

Or you could use a simple FFC script and do something like: if(LinkCollision(this) && Link->Press*) {Game->Save();}

 

(* being whatever button to save with.)

[Deedee]

That's what I said. Abs() is a simple function that instead of checking an exact amount, checks to see if you are close to that amount. Basically, it's an FFC Collision function.

On a side note, nice job on figuring that out though! You're 1/3 your way to becoming a decent scripter

Edited by Dimentio, 23 October 2015 - 05:43 PM.

[Mr.Butters]

i had a lot to say but arkia said most of it but i will say the rest. 

pros:

i think the music is pretty good.

the graphics where nice to look at.

i thought the rpg and gameplay was perfect!

cons:

the overall difficulty was mad!

i think that B9F needs a redesign.

overall 4.2/5

[coolgamer012345]

That's what I said. Abs() is a simple function that instead of checking an exact amount, checks to see if you are close to that amount. Basically, it's an FFC Collision function.

On a side note, nice job on figuring that out though! You're 1/3 your way to becoming a decent scripter

Abs() takes the absolute value of a number, so if you put in something like Abs(-5) it would return 5.

 

And considering that I've made a knight that follows you around and attacks enemies, and have scripted most of a subscreen (all a bit buggy, but they work), I'd say I'm pretty decent, I just haven't actually released much of my code on the forums

[Mani Kanina]

Played this in ZC 2.50 build 28.

Build 28? Is that one of the earlier ones? Considering we are now on build 1793, version 2.50.2, that's fairly far behind. I'm surprised the scripts in this quest manage to work at all.
 

Overall impression was that money seemed scarce and most items beyond the very basic starter items were very expensive. Almost all the money I got from the first two areas went towards buying the upgraded spear and the armor since I wasn't sure how useful the other stuff like the spells would be. Because of this I didn't buy any of the spells until the end of the third area. Speaking of the third area there seemed to be a pretty big difficulty spike there (and many literal spikes!). The rooms with entire floors made out of spikes that you get locked into are particularly bad, especially since you lose progress on death. The boss of this area was quite difficult as well. I was only barely able to beat it after buying potions and a couple spells.

This quest was inspired by the Etrian odyssey, so it was intentional that there are some leaps in difficulty every time you start a new area. I have had some thoughts about reducing spikes in area 3 myself, but I wanted to at least get some feedback on it all before I decided on exactly what to do. I'll see if I can get some more feedback on it first before I do any changes to the specifics. The level 2 spear and the armuor were intended to be picked up later on in the quest given their price point, but I put them early on so physical only builds like yours have something to spend money on.

And yeah, the patramanhandla is very hard with physical builds. He's actually one of the largest balancing things that I need to have tested.
 

Certain sounds are also pretty loud, like the text boxes and spike traps hitting walls. (especially when there are lots of spike traps in a room)

These are the default Koten stuff, which is often a love or hate relationship for most. Personally I have no issues with it, but I'll look into my options. I could always just extract them and EQ them some if there is a general agreement on that they are loud.
 

Possible Bugs:
1. Restarting ZC and loading a save file for this quest places the Magic Tome on the A button every time. (probably specific to this build though)
2. Lanmolas have a number appear on them as if they've taken damage when they spawn.
3. Despite getting to Level 13 by the end of the beta my magic stat never actually increased.
4. The teleporter from the end of the first area to the beginning of the third area never unlocked.

 
Other Things:
5. The second area gave much less EXP compared to the other areas. I gained 4 levels beating the first and third areas, but only 2 after finishing the second area.
6. The save tile is very picky about where you have to stand to use it.

1: Yeah I have no idea about this, I guess your build don't save what items is stored on the A button when saving, so it defaults to what is in the lowest number inventory space... which is the magic tome. If this happens to anyone else, let me know.
2: This has to do with the damage numbers script, I'm not sure if I could do anything about it since I did not code it myself. But yeah, I have been aware of this for a while, but it's pretty low priority.
3: Alright, I suppose I need to add in more hints about how the leveling system works. But hey, that's why I have a hint fairy! Allow me to explain: On level up, you either gain one point in power or one point in magic. Which one you get is based on what you have used the most since the last level up.
4: This is weird, the room to the left of the save room in stratum 3 should activate the teleporter via step->Secret tiles, and when I tested it earlier in production it worked... but yeah it seems broken now. I'll see if I can fix it.

5: Yeah uh, even EXP curve is not going to happen. That something that takes extensive play testing to get right, and I don't exactly work with a large testing base here. As long as there isn't a problem with the difficulty I don't think I'll do anything about it. It also varies how much each player grind in each area, so getting something perfect is rather hard.
6: I'll see if I can do anything about that.
 

Screenshot 1
- What I assume is a shortcut in the second area can't actually be used. Can't go north from screen 32 on B6F even though the blocks are down on that screen and the one above it. (See Screenshot 1)
 
Screenshot 2
- The chest in screen 76 on B9F should be moved to the top row of blocks. Opening the chest doesn't stop the spikes from advancing and hitting the player which is a bit unfair. (See Screenshot 2)

Fixed these, it will be in the next beta build.


Thanks for taking the time and testing, this extensive information is really useful.


In regards to everyone talking about the save tile: I'm a bit surprised people have issues saving on it to be honest, I could probably expand it by making the tiles next to it also save tiles, (This is, after all, a standard ZC feature... although not often used.) Personally I find it fairly forgiving where you can stand on it, but if this is an issue for people then I'll have to fix it.

Edited by Lunaria, 23 October 2015 - 08:52 PM.

[Arkia]

I think the save tile thing might just be an bug with diagonal movement, possibly only in certain versions too. I had the same issue a couple times with the warp tiles as well.

 

Also does the Magic Tome not count as using magic on level up? I swear I used it almost exclusively for most of the first area so my first few levels should've gone towards magic.

Edited by Arkia, 23 October 2015 - 09:07 PM.

[Mani Kanina]

It should be and I have not noticed any difference that would suggest that it does not anymore. But keep in mind that it counts usage of items, not kills. This means that people spending a lot of time cutting grass with the spear will still edge towards melee.

[SCKnuckles]

I aint saying right now...I mean when it is complete like with the last game.

[Deedee]

Abs() takes the absolute value of a number, so if you put in something like Abs(-5) it would return 5.

 

And considering that I've made a knight that follows you around and attacks enemies, and have scripted most of a subscreen (all a bit buggy, but they work), I'd say I'm pretty decent, I just haven't actually released much of my code on the forums

Well, it appears you are around my level of scripting, as those are things similar to things that I have done recently.

Abs() may give an exact number, but it can also detect ranges. For example:
 

if (Abs(Link->X - this->X) < 8 && Abs(Link->Y - this->Y) < 8)

The above code will detect if link is within 8 pixels left or right of the FFC, and check if he is within 8 pixels up or down from the FFC (in other words, check to see if he is on the FFC). If true, then the code inside the conditional will execute. 
 

Although, I never knew what Abs did. Thanks!

Edited by Dimentio, 25 October 2015 - 09:09 AM.

[Mani Kanina]

Please try and stay on-topic. If you two want to discuss scripting ideas with each other you can do that in PM, I'd think.

[Deedee]

I'm just saying, that if you use a script for the save tile (which wouldn't surprise me: I believe built in save tiles act more regularly), you should use Abs() to check if link it on the tile, instead of checking to see if the x and y positions are equal. Because I cannot play this until the save game issue is resolved.