for some reason turning vsync off makes the game run stupidly fast and turning it on makes it feel very choppy/jittery, prob has something to do with logic tied to framerate vs my screens refresh rate (144hz)
Thank you for playing! It is a bug that doubles speed of gamemaker games on 144Hz, v-sync helps to fight with it. But, if you want, you also can try to activate fix that slows framerate in halve by pressing Cntrl+Alt+F2 and combine it with turning v-sync on/off.
I left you a feedback video. Watching this over I realize that my voice is pretty quiet at times (and the mic is picking up game audio too...). Let me know if there's a certain segment you're curious about and I'll type up to clarify.
Anyway, one of my complaints was about not knowing what Dex and Int were/were for, but I just realized you can mouseover to check, so I guess that's fine.
Hey, thank you for playing and giving feedback that much! Here is my answers:
>Fighter maybe is OP I love this topic, it makes me smile (in a good way) every time, because I often hear that Fighter is OP, or that he is the worst, or that Firestarter/Poisoner is OP, or even Vagabond. Every player explore some classes better and less others, they are not balanced too much though, but you will see changes for different parts of game, and you should unlock other skills to check (you can unlock another skill on 6th level of character, buying skillbook from skill master npc, they cost 5 crystal currency each, but unlock skills forever), later there will be quests instead of buiyng them. Also you can unlock 2 more classes (Archer and Vandal) buy beating 3rd floor. There will be more later in development. -Fighter is a fast mobile killer, depends on good weapon equip, you can run with shield or with two weapons. -Firestarter is about fast damaging dots and/or burst damage (it will learn fireball skill on 6th level) -Poisoner is more damaging prolonging dots and debuffs (it will learn toxin vial skill on 6th level, that slows your enemies) -Vagabond is about melee/range hybrid, you choose your way of development, throwing rock can be modded to smash heads of enemies hard, or be just a spam range ability Fighter feels better on early levels, but those other guys can impact lots of damage on higher levels and if playing more crafty and/or kiting -Archer is obviously about archery -Vandal is a tank, that can smash things hard as well, but slower than a Fighter, also can learn stun skill
>what is RP CUrrently classes use three types of resources to use skills, Rage Points (RP), Trick Points (TP), and Energy Points (EP) Rage is something like rage from WoW, you build it up, then spend it on skills Tricks is a modified idea of energy from WoW Energy is more like a classic mana
>relax negative value Relax is a stat of how fast you leave combat and how faster after that you can enter relax state (if you don't move) So decreasing it you need less time for each step (5 sec by default) Relax state affects Energy and Rage, and has no effect on Tricks, Energy regenerates faster, and Rage decreases faster. So, it helps to Energy users, but makes things a bit harder for Rage users, and has no effect on Tricks users. Cloth hat armor always has innate bonus to decrease relax stat (it may change in future).
>colorblind It is a part of trait systems to diffirentiate characters, it gives some 'pleasant' traits, some 'unpleasant', and some 'rare' cases, like this one, it will appear more rare when I will have much more 'rare' traits options, also some may find this color mode fun and interesting, hehe.
>Charge skill usage I see how you use charge, when you touch an enemy it automatically activates autoattack, but it will be much more effective, if you would strike it manually, you will have more hit chances as hit area will be large not after your enemies, but before them, autostrike on contact was added as an option when you are too late to press it in time.
>second weapon I see that you don't use your extraslot, fighters, vagabonds and poisoners have weapon extraslot and firestarter has crystal extraslot. That means that your fighter can equip two weapons, or weapon and a shield, or firestarter will be able to equip 2 power crystals (those give you extra skills). Extraslot weapons attacks have long cooldown so you won't spam two weapons just like that, but you can decrease this cooldown with some ways. So this 'fist skill' is just your second weapon, but because you have no weapons in that slot it is just a fist attack.
>getting killed When you are on low level characters on high levels with hard difficulty you can just leave to the camp, restore your health, then go to lower levels to level up, or maybe decreasing level for first times, you will have much succes as trained and well-equipped char, than trying it over and over again as first levels. But you will have this option, when you will buy tower upgrades that let you hire more expirienced adventurers with better starter equip.
>save button It is an interesting idea, I will think on it, thank you!
>crystal skill For some reason you didn't get any power crystals that give extra skillsduring this vid, maybe you will get them later. Some mobs drop it at some chance.
>why slow moving mode It should help when you need to move carefully, for example, near spikes.
>Charge skill improvements: Hits +2? Buy default charge improved weapon attack can affect 2 targets, but with this upgrade it will attack 4 targets. It should be named targets +2 then, but it sometimes happened that boss could get all theese hits in one go, so it is 'Hits' for now.
>32:37 I'm sorry, what was your question? Couldn't hear that.
>item equipping with drag and drop You also can equip itemsby pressing RMB, and Shift+RMB if you need to equip something to extra slot
>crystal currency Not sure for now how I will use it in a long run. At first they were used to improve skills, now they are for buying skillbooks from skillmaster in the Camp, and to buy power crystals from gemcutter in the Clan's Domain (you will get access there after quest line and some gold grinding)
>about stick attack speed Cooldown of weapon attacks depends on aspd and DEX, and type of weapon. Firestarters are more focused on skill damage than weapons, so they have weapons as extra optional minor damage, but you will have more options later in development.
>steam Going to make a steam page in this year :)
If I missed something of your questions, please, let me know. Thank you again, and sorry if there is too much text :)
I'm starting to see how the Firestater for example is more skilled against multiple enemies. I've said my bit, it's on you to try to keep them relatively balanced, even if they're hugely advantageous in different situations. If people are disagreeing about which classes are viable than you're doing pretty well.
>RP explanation Thanks. This was actually my question at the 32 minute mark I believe. Pretty funny all the goblins yelling right when I was asking a question. So when you say that I spend it on skills, does my main skill require RP? Do any skills (for the fighter)?
>relax explanation It would be nice if this explanation was in game. Another example of something I was clueless about was "En. Armor +1" Enchanted armor +1??
>colorblind Your call. I just think a 'make the game look like poo for the current life' is no good.
>charge skill Got it, so I still need to slash my weapons when using the charge.
>second weapon I figured this out soon after the video I think. I mostly go with shields.
>getting killed Yeah. I mostly was trying to get that one juicy bag I think, although now I know you only have one chance for the lootbag.
>slow moving I think the issue with walking was that it exposed some weird camera jitter.
>Hits +2 Is the text tied to the functional performance of skills/attacks/weapons? This is tricky, but maybe "Max Targets +2" would properly convey that there is a target limit for the charge attack.
One last thing, a single mechanical issue I found that I didn't mention in my playthrough is getting stuck on walls. If I'm walking diagonally into a wall that's behind me, if most of my direction was towards the wall, I wouldn't move. This was rather frustrating when running away and fighting at the same time.
>So when you say that I spend it on skills, does my main skill require RP? Do any skills (for the fighter)? Charge skill is unique skill right now, it has two components, a charge and improved weapon strike, charge itself is free, but you need to spend 15 RP to improve your weapon attack during charge (larger area, more targets affected).
>En. Armor +1 En. Armor is Energy Armor
>colorblind I was choosing between grayscale and sepia, picked sepia and have some plans on grayscale mode with other thing for later development, also it was mostly like traits from Rogue Legacy (which had both color modes, sepia and grayscale).
>slow moving weird camera jitter yeah, this is a thing, don't know how to fix it yet
>Max Targets +2 I think, something like this should work, yes
>stuck on walls Oh, yeah, this is a real dragon I can't slay for a pretty long time, looks like I would need to completely overwrite movement system to fix that problem :)
First time playing this, I was very impressed. I really don't have much helpful feedback, only because everything already feels so polished. One minor thing, some of the text seemed a bit small. Probably didn't help that I'm playing on a smaller monitor. The tutorial is very well done, I felt like it showed everything I needed to know in a quick and engaging manner. When I entered the dungeon I noticed some nice atmospheric details, squishing bugs by stepping on them, stuff like that. The gameplay and visuals are both very well done, I don't have anything helpful to add there. Keep it up.
Thank you for playing! >One minor thing, some of the text seemed a bit small. You can change GUI Scale by pressing '-' or '+' on numpad, I should let players know this fact, because autoscale works like ass sometimes, heh.
WHAT'S NEW • New traits
• Quest Log added • Dialog window with NPCs improved • Equipped weapons are shown on the back (can be turn off in settings) • New equipment: bags and ammo (infinite ammo, act like a quiver), ranged weapons could be used without an ammo equip, but would do lesser damage • Character will get extra stat points either perk points for every 5 levels • New stats "Evasion" and "Clarity" (reduses Energy cost of skills, only for Energy users) • Perk System, 1 perk point for every 10 levels, 12 different perks implemented • Added 2nd page for "Skills" window, shows traits and perks • New power crystals: power strike (windup, STR-red), critial strike (windup, DEX-yellow), fire bolt (fast cast, INT-blue), barrel destroyer (long cast, Pet skill-light blue) • New 8 quests • A few quest system improvements
• Notes system • Clan's Domain (W.I.P.)
CHANGES • Changes in save system, OLD SAVES WILL BE DELETED (again)! But "Compensation" quest would give some progress as a reward • Level ups restores health and skill resorce for normal, but only resource for hard • Elves enemies - hp decreased, exp increased • Trait "Meteorism" is turned off by default with "Silly Humor" option in settings • Removed ability to reroll your character in the tower from Restart option due being outdated mechanic, but you still can go to retirement from Camp/Domain • Faster Rage gaining for Rage users • Warrior archetype (Fighter) uses Rage Points instead of Power Points • Trickster archetype (Poisoner) uses Trick Points instead of Focus Points • Light armor now have evasion innate bonus • Fighter passive skill improvement Offensive => Dual-Wield • Removed traits for poison resist and heal power for being not very interesting • Clan Bonuses: available through character window, no more cost crystals, don't need to visit an npc anymore • Charge skill: if you have enough Rage you can trigger autoattack on touching your enemy if you didn't use it manually • Vagabond class passive skill: accuracy => max damage of sticks • Updated skill description in "Skills" window • Activating skillbooks unlocks its skill forever, next characters of this class would automatically get it on certain level • Sticks are STR-based again, but Vagabond has innate perk that lets you also use DEX for Sticks • Text notifications on what items you picked up
FIXES • Cultist Boss on last phase can take 1 minimum energy damage from burning • Fixed problem of autoscaling on displays with height over 768 pixels • Fixed torch lighting overlapping over other sprites • Fixed shadows overlapping artifacts • Pick up item tooltip shows if it has [Starter] mod
Is there a specific reason the lighting works the way it works? It feels a bit odd having lights go on or off this way
Item pickups from enemies could be more visible
That dash skill feels kinda hard to control
Other than that, it was quite enjoyable. The first boss in the tower was pretty tough. I eventually cheesed him after restarting when I had a character that could throw poison stuff and just ran away and tossed poison at him.
Thank you for playing! >Is there a specific reason the lighting works the way it works? This is how I cope with 8 lights limit in gamemaker. >Item pickups from enemies could be more visible If glowing animation is looped it looks a bit strange, I'll see what I can do with this.
You're early on instead of like #60 this time, so I'll be giving your game more of a chance than I did last time. Let's go onto the feedback.
- Whoa, was it first person before? This looks a whole lot better. The guy looked super tiny before. I mean, it still feels like the character is super tiny, but it's not as pronounced as in third person.
- Combat feedback feels pretty good, as does the audio design!
- Ah, found the first/third person toggle. Nice. Still feels super tiny though.
- The map feature is real neat. I like it.
- Died to the fire robed boi.
- It isn't exactly clear what the character select is after you die or at the start. I'm assuming it's like Rogue Legacy where it's offspring? It could be clearer about what it actually is.
Overall this was nice. I enjoyed myself a lot more than I did last time. I think I'd enjoy myself more with this on controller, but I was too lazy to hook it up. Nice progress, friend!
Thank you for feedback, friend! >I'm assuming it's like Rogue Legacy where it's offspring? Yes, something like that, your family clan members retake your place.
Comments
uploaded hotfixes
https://mr-smoke.itch.io/archtower/devlog/233544/hotfix-0331
https://mr-smoke.itch.io/archtower/devlog/233894/hotfix-0332
for some reason turning vsync off makes the game run stupidly fast and turning it on makes it feel very choppy/jittery, prob has something to do with logic tied to framerate vs my screens refresh rate (144hz)
Thank you for playing!
It is a bug that doubles speed of gamemaker games on 144Hz, v-sync helps to fight with it.
But, if you want, you also can try to activate fix that slows framerate in halve by pressing Cntrl+Alt+F2 and combine it with turning v-sync on/off.
I left you a feedback video. Watching this over I realize that my voice is pretty quiet at times (and the mic is picking up game audio too...). Let me know if there's a certain segment you're curious about and I'll type up to clarify.
Anyway, one of my complaints was about not knowing what Dex and Int were/were for, but I just realized you can mouseover to check, so I guess that's fine.
Hey, thank you for playing and giving feedback that much!
Here is my answers:
>Fighter maybe is OP
I love this topic, it makes me smile (in a good way) every time, because I often hear that Fighter is OP, or that he is the worst, or that Firestarter/Poisoner is OP, or even Vagabond. Every player explore some classes better and less others, they are not balanced too much though, but you will see changes for different parts of game, and you should unlock other skills to check (you can unlock another skill on 6th level of character, buying skillbook from skill master npc, they cost 5 crystal currency each, but unlock skills forever), later there will be quests instead of buiyng them.
Also you can unlock 2 more classes (Archer and Vandal) buy beating 3rd floor. There will be more later in development.
-Fighter is a fast mobile killer, depends on good weapon equip, you can run with shield or with two weapons.
-Firestarter is about fast damaging dots and/or burst damage (it will learn fireball skill on 6th level)
-Poisoner is more damaging prolonging dots and debuffs (it will learn toxin vial skill on 6th level, that slows your enemies)
-Vagabond is about melee/range hybrid, you choose your way of development, throwing rock can be modded to smash heads of enemies hard, or be just a spam range ability
Fighter feels better on early levels, but those other guys can impact lots of damage on higher levels and if playing more crafty and/or kiting
-Archer is obviously about archery
-Vandal is a tank, that can smash things hard as well, but slower than a Fighter, also can learn stun skill
>what is RP
CUrrently classes use three types of resources to use skills, Rage Points (RP), Trick Points (TP), and Energy Points (EP)
Rage is something like rage from WoW, you build it up, then spend it on skills
Tricks is a modified idea of energy from WoW
Energy is more like a classic mana
>relax negative value
Relax is a stat of how fast you leave combat and how faster after that you can enter relax state (if you don't move)
So decreasing it you need less time for each step (5 sec by default)
Relax state affects Energy and Rage, and has no effect on Tricks, Energy regenerates faster, and Rage decreases faster.
So, it helps to Energy users, but makes things a bit harder for Rage users, and has no effect on Tricks users.
Cloth hat armor always has innate bonus to decrease relax stat (it may change in future).
>colorblind
It is a part of trait systems to diffirentiate characters, it gives some 'pleasant' traits, some 'unpleasant', and some 'rare' cases, like this one, it will appear more rare when I will have much more 'rare' traits options, also some may find this color mode fun and interesting, hehe.
>Charge skill usage
I see how you use charge, when you touch an enemy it automatically activates autoattack, but it will be much more effective, if you would strike it manually, you will have more hit chances as hit area will be large not after your enemies, but before them, autostrike on contact was added as an option when you are too late to press it in time.
>second weapon
I see that you don't use your extraslot, fighters, vagabonds and poisoners have weapon extraslot and firestarter has crystal extraslot.
That means that your fighter can equip two weapons, or weapon and a shield, or firestarter will be able to equip 2 power crystals (those give you extra skills).
Extraslot weapons attacks have long cooldown so you won't spam two weapons just like that, but you can decrease this cooldown with some ways. So this 'fist skill' is just your second weapon, but because you have no weapons in that slot it is just a fist attack.
>getting killed
When you are on low level characters on high levels with hard difficulty you can just leave to the camp, restore your health, then go to lower levels to level up, or maybe decreasing level for first times, you will have much succes as trained and well-equipped char, than trying it over and over again as first levels. But you will have this option, when you will buy tower upgrades that let you hire more expirienced adventurers with better starter equip.
>save button
It is an interesting idea, I will think on it, thank you!
>crystal skill
For some reason you didn't get any power crystals that give extra skillsduring this vid, maybe you will get them later. Some mobs drop it at some chance.
>why slow moving mode
It should help when you need to move carefully, for example, near spikes.
>Charge skill improvements: Hits +2?
Buy default charge improved weapon attack can affect 2 targets, but with this upgrade it will attack 4 targets.
It should be named targets +2 then, but it sometimes happened that boss could get all theese hits in one go, so it is 'Hits' for now.
>32:37
I'm sorry, what was your question? Couldn't hear that.
>item equipping with drag and drop
You also can equip itemsby pressing RMB, and Shift+RMB if you need to equip something to extra slot
>crystal currency
Not sure for now how I will use it in a long run. At first they were used to improve skills, now they are for buying skillbooks from skillmaster in the Camp, and to buy power crystals from gemcutter in the Clan's Domain (you will get access there after quest line and some gold grinding)
>about stick attack speed
Cooldown of weapon attacks depends on aspd and DEX, and type of weapon. Firestarters are more focused on skill damage than weapons, so they have weapons as extra optional minor damage, but you will have more options later in development.
>steam
Going to make a steam page in this year :)
If I missed something of your questions, please, let me know.
Thank you again, and sorry if there is too much text :)
You're very welcome.
I'm starting to see how the Firestater for example is more skilled against multiple enemies. I've said my bit, it's on you to try to keep them relatively balanced, even if they're hugely advantageous in different situations. If people are disagreeing about which classes are viable than you're doing pretty well.
>RP explanation
Thanks. This was actually my question at the 32 minute mark I believe. Pretty funny all the goblins yelling right when I was asking a question. So when you say that I spend it on skills, does my main skill require RP? Do any skills (for the fighter)?
>relax explanation
It would be nice if this explanation was in game. Another example of something I was clueless about was "En. Armor +1" Enchanted armor +1??
>colorblind
Your call. I just think a 'make the game look like poo for the current life' is no good.
>charge skill
Got it, so I still need to slash my weapons when using the charge.
>second weapon
I figured this out soon after the video I think. I mostly go with shields.
>getting killed
Yeah. I mostly was trying to get that one juicy bag I think, although now I know you only have one chance for the lootbag.
>slow moving
I think the issue with walking was that it exposed some weird camera jitter.
>Hits +2
Is the text tied to the functional performance of skills/attacks/weapons? This is tricky, but maybe "Max Targets +2" would properly convey that there is a target limit for the charge attack.
One last thing, a single mechanical issue I found that I didn't mention in my playthrough is getting stuck on walls. If I'm walking diagonally into a wall that's behind me, if most of my direction was towards the wall, I wouldn't move. This was rather frustrating when running away and fighting at the same time.
>So when you say that I spend it on skills, does my main skill require RP? Do any skills (for the fighter)?
Charge skill is unique skill right now, it has two components, a charge and improved weapon strike, charge itself is free, but you need to spend 15 RP to improve your weapon attack during charge (larger area, more targets affected).
>En. Armor +1
En. Armor is Energy Armor
>colorblind
I was choosing between grayscale and sepia, picked sepia and have some plans on grayscale mode with other thing for later development, also it was mostly like traits from Rogue Legacy (which had both color modes, sepia and grayscale).
>slow moving weird camera jitter
yeah, this is a thing, don't know how to fix it yet
>Max Targets +2
I think, something like this should work, yes
>stuck on walls
Oh, yeah, this is a real dragon I can't slay for a pretty long time, looks like I would need to completely overwrite movement system to fix that problem :)
First time playing this, I was very impressed. I really don't have much helpful feedback, only because everything already feels so polished. One minor thing, some of the text seemed a bit small. Probably didn't help that I'm playing on a smaller monitor. The tutorial is very well done, I felt like it showed everything I needed to know in a quick and engaging manner. When I entered the dungeon I noticed some nice atmospheric details, squishing bugs by stepping on them, stuff like that. The gameplay and visuals are both very well done, I don't have anything helpful to add there. Keep it up.
Thank you for playing!
>One minor thing, some of the text seemed a bit small.
You can change GUI Scale by pressing '-' or '+' on numpad, I should let players know this fact, because autoscale works like ass sometimes, heh.
Most improtant changes since last DD entry:
WHAT'S NEW
• New traits
• Quest Log added
• Dialog window with NPCs improved
• Equipped weapons are shown on the back (can be turn off in settings)
• New equipment: bags and ammo (infinite ammo, act like a quiver), ranged weapons could be used without an ammo equip, but would do lesser damage
• Character will get extra stat points either perk points for every 5 levels
• New stats "Evasion" and "Clarity" (reduses Energy cost of skills, only for Energy users)
• Perk System, 1 perk point for every 10 levels, 12 different perks implemented
• Added 2nd page for "Skills" window, shows traits and perks
• New power crystals: power strike (windup, STR-red), critial strike (windup, DEX-yellow), fire bolt (fast cast, INT-blue), barrel destroyer (long cast, Pet skill-light blue)
• New 8 quests
• A few quest system improvements
• Notes system
• Clan's Domain (W.I.P.)
CHANGES
• Changes in save system, OLD SAVES WILL BE DELETED (again)! But "Compensation" quest would give some progress as a reward
• Level ups restores health and skill resorce for normal, but only resource for hard
• Elves enemies - hp decreased, exp increased
• Trait "Meteorism" is turned off by default with "Silly Humor" option in settings
• Removed ability to reroll your character in the tower from Restart option due being outdated mechanic, but you still can go to retirement from Camp/Domain
• Faster Rage gaining for Rage users
• Warrior archetype (Fighter) uses Rage Points instead of Power Points
• Trickster archetype (Poisoner) uses Trick Points instead of Focus Points
• Light armor now have evasion innate bonus
• Fighter passive skill improvement Offensive => Dual-Wield
• Removed traits for poison resist and heal power for being not very interesting
• Clan Bonuses: available through character window, no more cost crystals, don't need to visit an npc anymore
• Charge skill: if you have enough Rage you can trigger autoattack on touching your enemy if you didn't use it manually
• Vagabond class passive skill: accuracy => max damage of sticks
• Updated skill description in "Skills" window
• Activating skillbooks unlocks its skill forever, next characters of this class would automatically get it on certain level
• Sticks are STR-based again, but Vagabond has innate perk that lets you also use DEX for Sticks
• Text notifications on what items you picked up
FIXES
• Cultist Boss on last phase can take 1 minimum energy damage from burning
• Fixed problem of autoscaling on displays with height over 768 pixels
• Fixed torch lighting overlapping over other sprites
• Fixed shadows overlapping artifacts
• Pick up item tooltip shows if it has [Starter] mod
Other than that, it was quite enjoyable. The first boss in the tower was pretty tough. I eventually cheesed him after restarting when I had a character that could throw poison stuff and just ran away and tossed poison at him.
Thank you for playing!
>Is there a specific reason the lighting works the way it works?
This is how I cope with 8 lights limit in gamemaker.
>Item pickups from enemies could be more visible
If glowing animation is looped it looks a bit strange, I'll see what I can do with this.
You're early on instead of like #60 this time, so I'll be giving your game more of a chance than I did last time. Let's go onto the feedback.
- Whoa, was it first person before? This looks a whole lot better. The guy looked super tiny before. I mean, it still feels like the character is super tiny, but it's not as pronounced as in third person.
- Combat feedback feels pretty good, as does the audio design!
- Ah, found the first/third person toggle. Nice. Still feels super tiny though.
- The map feature is real neat. I like it.
- Died to the fire robed boi.
- It isn't exactly clear what the character select is after you die or at the start. I'm assuming it's like Rogue Legacy where it's offspring? It could be clearer about what it actually is.
Overall this was nice. I enjoyed myself a lot more than I did last time. I think I'd enjoy myself more with this on controller, but I was too lazy to hook it up. Nice progress, friend!
Thank you for feedback, friend!
>I'm assuming it's like Rogue Legacy where it's offspring?
Yes, something like that, your family clan members retake your place.