I played this for a while as a mage. I enjoyed it enough to play it for more than an hour. The following are just my opinions and I'm not an experienced gamer or game developer so take them with a grain of salt.
Well, a few things are: the ui needs some work (especially the skills menu is confusing) and the style doesn't really fit the fantasy theme, although I assume you're aware of that. I'd like to be able to carry more weight (or at least make the potions lighter. 20 potions for health, 20 for mana occupy 80% of space and I don't think that's such an outrageous amount to carry) and the spells need some variety imo. I'm not a great fan of the skyrim approach to elemental spells being separate but essentially all the same except for some minor side-effect. How about this: you get one active "energy orb" skill that you can combine with elemental support skills like "poison", "fire", "cold". Or just make the projectiles different enough for a separation to make sense (like for lightning)
But that's not the main problem: your spell system and interface is confusing as hell. While playing I did not realize that it was extremely stupid to level up my lightning bolt skill as I could achieve the same effect buying the passive lightning mastery skill with the same effect which however does not drain additional mana at cast. You see, in 99% of video games "level up" means "gets better", here I'd argue it gets worse. In my playthrough I found that using anything over lvl 2-3 was just not cost efficient, as a big chunk of damage was due to INT anyway and the added value had a big spread (1:3) making it feel unreliable. Gambling a third of your mana when taking a shot isn't wise. Also I did not realize projectile skills were both active and support at the same time. I did read the explanation in the menu, it just did not clear that up for me... And right now I'm combining a 2 mana bolt with a 2 mana "chain shot" support and the resulting cost is 6 mana+1 stamina. How? Why? Another thing is the way you present the classes is a bit disorienting to me. I would've been less confused by having a central menu showing all the classes and then each class leading back to that screen. You also have an "inquisitor" tab with no skills. You should've changed that tab's name to "Nodev". Get it? Nodevs... have no skills! haha...
Coins are a bit difficult to pick up. Sometimes I click them and they don't get picked up. I don't know maybe it's just the hitbox being a little too small or something. In titan quest there's a key shortcut for picking up all the stuff that you obviously want such as gold and potions. You could do that, or maybe make the gold get picked up automatically within some moderately large range to speed up the process.
I've found that running in a circle around an enemy confuses him so much he doesn't do anything but spin around, he doesn't shoot or move. It doesn't affect gameplay since I need to stop to cast, but it's just a little silly I guess. (I had 10%+ movespeed btw).
Enemies sometimes miss when casting the clouds of poison smoke. They cast it behind me occasionally. Just letting you know if this is not intentional. Also it doesn't really make sense to give enemies spells with multiple shots since I'm just one player anyway, but I guess that's really a nitpick.
Overall I still enjoyed it to some extent. I'm looking forward to playing this in feature demo days.
> I played this for a while as a mage. I enjoyed it enough to play it for more than an hour. Nice.
> ui needs some work (especially the skills menu is confusing) and the style doesn't really fit the fantasy theme UI is intentional, I don't want it to take to much attention off your character and what's happening around it.
My levels look like pool tables, nothing fits atm haha
> I'd like to be able to carry more weight
Nah, just take stacks off an item and drop it on the ground, no inventory tetris but we still have inventory management.
> spells need some variety let me cook
> "energy orb" skill that you can combine with elemental support skills like "poison", "fire", "cold" I didn't like that idea for spells, but I have that for Physical(Melee/Range) Skills. You can find those in the Arbiter skill branch converts Melee/Range to Elemental.
> make the projectiles different enough for a separation to make sense (like for lightning) Visual variety, noted.
> Flat vs Multiplier Values They compliment each other, if you don't have a good balance in both you're gonna have a long time with stronger levels. Attributes gives flat and multiplier values. It also behaves in increasing returns that's why it's effective with high values.
> combining a 2 mana bolt with a 2 mana "chain shot" support and the resulting cost is 6 mana+1 stamina. How? Why?
(base skill base cost + base skill cost per level + support skill cost per level) * (projectile count * (1+ pierce + chain)) + support cost (1 mana per physical skill & 1 stamina per spell skill as support skill) + 1 stamina * additional projectile = (Lightning Bolt base cost + Lightning Bolt cost per level + Chain Shot cost per level) * (projectile count * (1 + pierce + chain)) + support cost + additional projectile cost = (1mp + 1mp + 0) * (1 * (1+ 0 + 2) + 1sp + 0sp = 2mp * 3 + 1sp = 6mp + 1sp
note: in the first line of the formula [pierce + chain] multiplier only applies to mana note: [Piercing Shot & Chain Shot] don't have base or cost per level, but when used as a base will default to 1mp cost per pierce/chain
> confused by having a central menu showing all the classes and then each class leading back to that screen. You also have an "inquisitor" tab with no skills I wanted to have the secondary classes hidden/lock until some prerequisites are fulfilled, but I skipped that and just made it so you have to dig a little in the menu. Inquisitor is WIP.
> Coins are a bit difficult to pick up. Sometimes I click them and they don't get picked up. Loot does have a larger hit box. Clicking on the loot's hitbox should select it but that is not the case, game wants you to click on the non-transparent part of the sprite, this is a bug, and I'm working on it. We have Auto Loot, you can find it at the bottom of the inventory menu.
> running in a circle around an enemy confuses him so much he doesn't do anything but spin around, he doesn't shoot or move You and enemies use the same system. The enemy has less speed than you affecting it's 'turn rate'. And a character can perform an action it has to face it's target with a 12 degrees angle allowance.
> Enemies sometimes miss when casting the clouds of poison smoke The actual hitbox large but visual is just larger, it is intentional.
> it doesn't really make sense to give enemies spells with multiple shots since I'm just one player anyway So when you try to dodge the other might have a chance hitting you. Enemy skill variety. Players might also get curious if it's possible for them to use those since players and mobs use the same systems (except for inputs)
That was a detailed and thoughtful reply, thanks. I see many of the things I mentioned are just things you are working on. Having a tight inventory is fair at the end of the day, I should've used the stash to store excess potions. Also I wish I found auto-loot, it's really convenient. An idea regarding that; maybe auto-loot potions only of the same level or above to what the player is carrying? Or have a tunable option of some sort. At a certain point I've stopped collecting/using potions that aren't grand. Thing is I've played a bit more since leaving the review and I did use the leveled up spells, since that was the only way left to get higher damage. I ended up investing most of my skill points in in extra mana and mana regen to be able to handle that. Chaining and multiple projectiles are very nice. I can permastun and melt any enemy group now, regardless of size. In the end I leveled to max and have 7 stacks of cash. Here's a brief video showing my situation:
Also now that I read the explanation, the mp/sp cost of spells makes sense. A little bit of unintuitiveness is inevitable; people will mess around and find what works, or else browse some wiki for minmaxing like for any other game. So yeah, looking forward to seeing further development!
> That was a detailed and thoughtful reply, thanks. I see many of the things I mentioned are just things you are working on. Yeah, I'm creeping my way trying to make systems feel/seem right and then maybe make it look right sooner or later.
> auto-loot options for potions There are four options. You can rotate through these options by repeatedly clicking on the Auto-Loot button for potions.
OPTION
EFFECT
Off
turn off auto-loot
All
pick every potion off the ground
Hotbar
pick potions present on the hotbar (even with zero stack)
Inventory
pick potions present in the inventory + hotbar option
> Also now that I read the explanation, the mp/sp cost of spells makes sense You can support a base skill with as many skills as you can (with compatible ones though), and the only hinder is resource cost
> A little bit of unintuitiveness is inevitable; people will mess around and find what works Yes, I believe part of the fun is figuring things out :D
Pretty neat thing. I played for a small amount of time. The spells felt kind of OP. I went through like 20 areas and still was 1-shotting stuff most of the time. I went full wiz build.
I don't think coins should need to be picked up, or even in the game at all. I never found a use for them, but regardless, it would be entirely cumbersome to pick up currency like that, especially when there's a big delay after picking something up.
I assume enemies are just randomly colored because I initially thought red enemies were immune to fire damage, green were immune to poison, etc, but that wasn't the case. With low-fidelity graphics I think color becomes especially important so keep that in mind when making enemies.
The dash felt cheap to use and that's not a good thing. I am of the opinion that people use a dash like that as a band-aid fix to uninteresting or bad locomotion and it comes off especially strong here. I could have gone the entire game without using it and I feel like my experience would have been the same.
I saw in the inventory that there's a second weapon set but didn't know which button it was to activate it.
Speaking of the inventory, I was kind of surprised when I picked up an item and it said my bag was full. Maybe I didn't look well enough but I didn't even know my inventory had a limit at first. Perhaps incorporate a 'progress/fullness' bar at the bottom to indicate a full inventory if you don't want to have the inventory size be manifold with itself.
Overall a very solid start to a top-down ARPG. I didn't run into any bugs that I could tell.
The skill tree was a bit unintuitive, it took me a second to understand "unlocking" the skills, and initially thought things needed 10 points since it said /10
I understand the delay on movement to make kiting weaker but it still feels unresponsive... Maybe try having the player's movement speed ramp up over that amount of time so it still feels like the game's responding to inputs? You could start around 10% speed and SmoothStep up to 100% over those 15 frames or whatever. You could tweak the numbers to make it mostly identical gameplay-wise while still feeling better.
I felt pretty unthreatened until I got to a green guy with a sword 5~ areas in who "Flicker Striked" me (in PoE terms) for 18 damage and one-shot me which felt pretty unfair. I had even just put my first few points into HP just in case, at level 5 or so. I suppose I should have been focusing more on defenses, but spells were hitting me for like, 1-2 damage so I felt safe. (Maybe since I was playing a wizard myself?)
Overall fun and impressively "complete" RPG systems but I don't feel compelled to try again since I don't see any unique gameplay features to mess with or anything specific it made me want to try to do. Playing D2 you see skills deep down the tree that sound really fun, so you keep playing. Playing PoE you keep seeing new skill gems with neat effects and supports that compel you to find more so you can combine them in neat ways. A small feature that's unique and distinctive could go a long way.
> unlocking Yeah, it's (Current Level / Max Upgrade Level)
> delay on movement Are you referring to the character turning before moving? Characters only do that when at a full stop. I designed it like this because it looked weird (like a vehicle) when characters that started moving (from idle) would move towards their facing direction then turn to their destination.
> flicker strike one shot Did the green guy have a colored weapon? That mob probably used 'Charge' on you and had a nice rolled weapon, cause mobs' equipment can roll Rarity(stronger base) & Quality(extra modifiers) too. And maybe you weren't lucky enough to find gear that would've absorbed the damage, equipment aside from weapons and accessories usually have damage reduction and resistance.
> overall fun Thanks
> I don't feel compelled to try again since I don't see any unique gameplay features to mess with or anything specific it made me want to try to do Yeah, I'm working on objectives to add to the games. In the meantime why not try adding/stacking Multishot or Chain Shot or both to your projectile spell, you can combine compatible skills. You don't have to though, and thanks for the feedback!
>Are you referring to the character turning before moving? Characters only do that when at a full stop.
Yeah, it feels... pretty bad. Again, it's interesting strategically, I like how it makes dodging things and positioning more difficult, it's just kind of a "game sin" to not have any movement happen when the movement key is pressed. I can't think of any other ARPG that has this kind of delay when characters are turning, that's more of an RTS/Dota thing. I could see it turning a lot of people off of the game, they'd just think "the game's laggy" without really understanding it.
>why not try adding/stacking Multishot or Chain Shot or both to your projectile spell, you can combine compatible skills. You don't have to though, and thanks for the feedback!
I totally didn't know you could combine skills, that seems neat! You should probably emphasize it in the skill tree UI more or wherever so people don't miss it
I also just realized I never used the vendor because despite reading the controls I never realized I was in a "Respite Zone" so I never pressed the button. That could also be more clear. It's super important to make this kind of stuff totally unmissable for dummies like me who don't want to pay attention. Maybe just by displaying some text in a corner of the screen saying: "Respite Zone" "Press V for Vendor, H for Stash" whenever you're in one of those zones. I'd imagine that whole system is placeholder and you'll have more visible shops/stashes at some point, though
> I totally didn't know you could combine skills, that seems neat! You should probably emphasize it in the skill tree UI more or wherever so people don't miss it I have the thing in the skill menu
> make it clear about things that don't have visual/environmental indicators like Respite Zone/Vendor/Stash Yeah, I used to have buttons dedicated for those on the HUD (where the zoom i/o is at now), but it didn't make sense to have those always around since you spend most your time outside Respite Zones anyway. I was hoping that people would read the description before entering the game but with the feedback I got from the last two Demo Days that's not gonna happen hahaha
> Maybe just by displaying some text in a corner of the screen saying: "Respite Zone" "Press V for Vendor, H for Stash" whenever you're in one of those zones. I'd imagine that whole system is placeholder and you'll have more visible shops/stashes at some point, though Great idea, thanks. And as you say some current systems are just placeholders and I'll eventually have visible interactables/indicators.
I played more actually using the skill combining and it's pretty fun! The blessings and everything seem kind of OP, I got a setup that made the game super easy, but the combining is pretty interesting and neat. I like how it's balanced around mana costs more than support slots, that's a cool idea. Some kind of optional harder content would be fun, or maybe just a general rebalance. I ended up using Poison Bolts with all the +proj, homing + chain + speed, with the blessings for max MP and MP regen, and I was basically one-shotting everything from around level 35 to uhhh 100 (which was fun while watching a stream)
It's kind of strange you can just grab skills from anywhere though, it kind of seems like "build diversity" wouldn't exist since everyone should just grab every blessing, +proj/homing/chain, etc. Might make sense to lock skills behind classes... Or maybe more advanced/higher level versions of those skills on classes or class advancements or something?
Bugs:
I had a wand and buckler equipped, dragged a Short Staff on, and it let me have the buckler equipped with the 2H. I had to take it off and on a couple times for it to realize I'm not supposed to have a buckler with the 2H
It seemed like Scourge Spell wasn't aggroing enemies? (I almost remember this happening in some other ARPGs so maybe it's intentional, but very powerful)
Picking up gold from far away failed maybe half the time, probably other items too but I noticed it most with gold. Maybe I was just clicking next to it? If so a larger pickup radius or something might be nice?
> I played more actually using the skill combining and it's pretty fun! Thanks! PoE inspired the mechanic.
> The blessings and everything seem kind of OP
Maximum Channeling Duration
Blessing Duration Per Channeling Duration
OLD
10
3
NEW
3
10
Yeah, In this build it is. I had to make the change to make Blessing Skills viable early game. And the effects I believe the base buff should be sufficient since this is a single-player game.
> Some kind of optional harder content would be fun, or maybe just a general rebalance I working on some new objectives, far from ready though.
> I was basically one-shotting everything from around level 35 to uhhh 100 Then you're playing the game right.
> It's kind of strange you can just grab skills from anywhere though, it kind of seems like "build diversity" wouldn't exist since everyone should just grab every blessing, +proj/homing/chain, etc. For projectiles it's the meta. I'll add other skills eventually that will be of interest (I hope).
> everyone should just grab every blessing, Yes, I don't plan on adding other skill branch themed buff skills because it would just be some variant of the existing Priest Blessing Skills.
> 2h with Shield That was my bad, I did a fix last night cause dragging vendor equipment then equipping them didn't reduce your gold, and the fix made the bug. I'll publish the fix tonight.
> Scourge Spell no aggro I missed this in the last update: Scourge Spell still uses a hit score of Infinity instead of -1 like other spell for an absolute hit. I'll publish the fix tonight.
> Picking up gold from far away failed maybe half the time, probably other items too but I noticed it most with gold. Maybe I was just clicking next to it? If so a larger pickup radius or something might be nice? Loot does have a larger hit box. The things with clicking on loot, when the character moves and you still have the mouse down and it's slightly of the loot's hitbox the command then defaults to move. I'll have this figured out soon. For now though pls use Auto Loot, you can find it at the bottom of the inventory menu
Should've read the instructions, the second round went better. Fun little demo though! The skills menu was a bit hard to navigate before I figured out the wanderer class was the kind of "home" page for the skills. It's also hard to differentiate between the lock and unlocked symbols.
Needs sound effects and some background music. I feel like everything misses half of the time. Stuff like "Skill reset" and "zoom the camera out" being the same button is kinda dumb. Also I can invest a lot into STR, but I feel like my guy's strength isn't really improving that much. Still a really good base for a game.
Skill reset doesn't have hotkey, you have to click on (X) . I guess using text for the button might be a bit confusing.
> STR
Treat each point invested as an attack percent multiplier. Though each point does give you a of flat value (0.1~0.2). When max STR/INT you get 10~20 atk and 100% multiplier bringing it to 20~40. And the design is intended to make you rely on your gear.
Comments
I played this for a while as a mage. I enjoyed it enough to play it for more than an hour. The following are just my opinions and I'm not an experienced gamer or game developer so take them with a grain of salt.
Well, a few things are: the ui needs some work (especially the skills menu is confusing) and the style doesn't really fit the fantasy theme, although I assume you're aware of that. I'd like to be able to carry more weight (or at least make the potions lighter. 20 potions for health, 20 for mana occupy 80% of space and I don't think that's such an outrageous amount to carry) and the spells need some variety imo. I'm not a great fan of the skyrim approach to elemental spells being separate but essentially all the same except for some minor side-effect. How about this: you get one active "energy orb" skill that you can combine with elemental support skills like "poison", "fire", "cold". Or just make the projectiles different enough for a separation to make sense (like for lightning)
But that's not the main problem: your spell system and interface is confusing as hell. While playing I did not realize that it was extremely stupid to level up my lightning bolt skill as I could achieve the same effect buying the passive lightning mastery skill with the same effect which however does not drain additional mana at cast. You see, in 99% of video games "level up" means "gets better", here I'd argue it gets worse. In my playthrough I found that using anything over lvl 2-3 was just not cost efficient, as a big chunk of damage was due to INT anyway and the added value had a big spread (1:3) making it feel unreliable. Gambling a third of your mana when taking a shot isn't wise. Also I did not realize projectile skills were both active and support at the same time. I did read the explanation in the menu, it just did not clear that up for me... And right now I'm combining a 2 mana bolt with a 2 mana "chain shot" support and the resulting cost is 6 mana+1 stamina. How? Why? Another thing is the way you present the classes is a bit disorienting to me. I would've been less confused by having a central menu showing all the classes and then each class leading back to that screen. You also have an "inquisitor" tab with no skills. You should've changed that tab's name to "Nodev". Get it? Nodevs... have no skills! haha...
Coins are a bit difficult to pick up. Sometimes I click them and they don't get picked up. I don't know maybe it's just the hitbox being a little too small or something. In titan quest there's a key shortcut for picking up all the stuff that you obviously want such as gold and potions. You could do that, or maybe make the gold get picked up automatically within some moderately large range to speed up the process.
I've found that running in a circle around an enemy confuses him so much he doesn't do anything but spin around, he doesn't shoot or move. It doesn't affect gameplay since I need to stop to cast, but it's just a little silly I guess. (I had 10%+ movespeed btw).
Enemies sometimes miss when casting the clouds of poison smoke. They cast it behind me occasionally. Just letting you know if this is not intentional. Also it doesn't really make sense to give enemies spells with multiple shots since I'm just one player anyway, but I guess that's really a nitpick.
Overall I still enjoyed it to some extent. I'm looking forward to playing this in feature demo days.
> I played this for a while as a mage. I enjoyed it enough to play it for more than an hour.
Nice.
> ui needs some work (especially the skills menu is confusing) and the style doesn't really fit the fantasy theme
UI is intentional, I don't want it to take to much attention off your character and what's happening around it. My levels look like pool tables, nothing fits atm haha
> I'd like to be able to carry more weight
Nah, just take stacks off an item and drop it on the ground, no inventory tetris but we still have inventory management.
> spells need some variety
let me cook
> "energy orb" skill that you can combine with elemental support skills like "poison", "fire", "cold"
I didn't like that idea for spells, but I have that for Physical(Melee/Range) Skills. You can find those in the Arbiter skill branch converts Melee/Range to Elemental.
> make the projectiles different enough for a separation to make sense (like for lightning)
Visual variety, noted.
> Flat vs Multiplier Values
They compliment each other, if you don't have a good balance in both you're gonna have a long time with stronger levels.
Attributes gives flat and multiplier values. It also behaves in increasing returns that's why it's effective with high values.
> combining a 2 mana bolt with a 2 mana "chain shot" support and the resulting cost is 6 mana+1 stamina. How? Why?
(base skill base cost + base skill cost per level + support skill cost per level) * (projectile count * (1+ pierce + chain))
+ support cost (1 mana per physical skill & 1 stamina per spell skill as support skill)
+ 1 stamina * additional projectile
=
(Lightning Bolt base cost + Lightning Bolt cost per level + Chain Shot cost per level) * (projectile count * (1 + pierce + chain))
+ support cost + additional projectile cost
=
(1mp + 1mp + 0) * (1 * (1+ 0 + 2) + 1sp + 0sp
=
2mp * 3 + 1sp
=
6mp + 1sp
note: in the first line of the formula [pierce + chain] multiplier only applies to mana
note: [Piercing Shot & Chain Shot] don't have base or cost per level, but when used as a base will default to 1mp cost per pierce/chain
> confused by having a central menu showing all the classes and then each class leading back to that screen. You also have an "inquisitor" tab with no skills
I wanted to have the secondary classes hidden/lock until some prerequisites are fulfilled, but I skipped that and just made it so you have to dig a little in the menu. Inquisitor is WIP.
> Coins are a bit difficult to pick up. Sometimes I click them and they don't get picked up.
Loot does have a larger hit box. Clicking on the loot's hitbox should select it but that is not the case, game wants you to click on the non-transparent part of the sprite, this is a bug, and I'm working on it.
We have Auto Loot, you can find it at the bottom of the inventory menu.
> running in a circle around an enemy confuses him so much he doesn't do anything but spin around, he doesn't shoot or move
You and enemies use the same system. The enemy has less speed than you affecting it's 'turn rate'.
And a character can perform an action it has to face it's target with a 12 degrees angle allowance.
> Enemies sometimes miss when casting the clouds of poison smoke
The actual hitbox large but visual is just larger, it is intentional.
> it doesn't really make sense to give enemies spells with multiple shots since I'm just one player anyway
So when you try to dodge the other might have a chance hitting you.
Enemy skill variety.
Players might also get curious if it's possible for them to use those since players and mobs use the same systems (except for inputs)
Thanks for trying out my WIP game!
That was a detailed and thoughtful reply, thanks. I see many of the things I mentioned are just things you are working on. Having a tight inventory is fair at the end of the day, I should've used the stash to store excess potions. Also I wish I found auto-loot, it's really convenient. An idea regarding that; maybe auto-loot potions only of the same level or above to what the player is carrying? Or have a tunable option of some sort. At a certain point I've stopped collecting/using potions that aren't grand. Thing is I've played a bit more since leaving the review and I did use the leveled up spells, since that was the only way left to get higher damage. I ended up investing most of my skill points in in extra mana and mana regen to be able to handle that. Chaining and multiple projectiles are very nice. I can permastun and melt any enemy group now, regardless of size. In the end I leveled to max and have 7 stacks of cash. Here's a brief video showing my situation:
https://files.catbox.moe/i50wdh.webm
Also now that I read the explanation, the mp/sp cost of spells makes sense. A little bit of unintuitiveness is inevitable; people will mess around and find what works, or else browse some wiki for minmaxing like for any other game. So yeah, looking forward to seeing further development!
> That was a detailed and thoughtful reply, thanks. I see many of the things I mentioned are just things you are working on.
Yeah, I'm creeping my way trying to make systems feel/seem right and then maybe make it look right sooner or later.
> auto-loot options for potions
There are four options. You can rotate through these options by repeatedly clicking on the Auto-Loot button for potions.
> https://files.catbox.moe/i50wdh.webm
Very nice.
> Also now that I read the explanation, the mp/sp cost of spells makes sense
You can support a base skill with as many skills as you can (with compatible ones though), and the only hinder is resource cost
> A little bit of unintuitiveness is inevitable; people will mess around and find what works
Yes, I believe part of the fun is figuring things out :D
Thank you for the feedback!
Pretty neat thing. I played for a small amount of time. The spells felt kind of OP. I went through like 20 areas and still was 1-shotting stuff most of the time. I went full wiz build.
I don't think coins should need to be picked up, or even in the game at all. I never found a use for them, but regardless, it would be entirely cumbersome to pick up currency like that, especially when there's a big delay after picking something up.
I assume enemies are just randomly colored because I initially thought red enemies were immune to fire damage, green were immune to poison, etc, but that wasn't the case. With low-fidelity graphics I think color becomes especially important so keep that in mind when making enemies.
The dash felt cheap to use and that's not a good thing. I am of the opinion that people use a dash like that as a band-aid fix to uninteresting or bad locomotion and it comes off especially strong here. I could have gone the entire game without using it and I feel like my experience would have been the same.
I saw in the inventory that there's a second weapon set but didn't know which button it was to activate it.
Speaking of the inventory, I was kind of surprised when I picked up an item and it said my bag was full. Maybe I didn't look well enough but I didn't even know my inventory had a limit at first. Perhaps incorporate a 'progress/fullness' bar at the bottom to indicate a full inventory if you don't want to have the inventory size be manifold with itself.
Overall a very solid start to a top-down ARPG. I didn't run into any bugs that I could tell.
> 1-shotting mobs
You're doing something right
> gold
You can use gold to buy consumables and equipment from the Vendor.
> colored enemies
Colored enemies indicate their property, atm moment this only affects a mob's offensive attributes and not defensive
> Dash Skill
I intended it to be used as engage/disengage/utility
> how to access secondary arms
I have the thing in the description
> inventory capacity indicator
> Overall a very solid start to a top-down ARPG. I didn't run into any bugs that I could tell.
Thanks!
The skill tree was a bit unintuitive, it took me a second to understand "unlocking" the skills, and initially thought things needed 10 points since it said /10
I understand the delay on movement to make kiting weaker but it still feels unresponsive... Maybe try having the player's movement speed ramp up over that amount of time so it still feels like the game's responding to inputs? You could start around 10% speed and SmoothStep up to 100% over those 15 frames or whatever. You could tweak the numbers to make it mostly identical gameplay-wise while still feeling better.
I felt pretty unthreatened until I got to a green guy with a sword 5~ areas in who "Flicker Striked" me (in PoE terms) for 18 damage and one-shot me which felt pretty unfair. I had even just put my first few points into HP just in case, at level 5 or so. I suppose I should have been focusing more on defenses, but spells were hitting me for like, 1-2 damage so I felt safe. (Maybe since I was playing a wizard myself?)
Overall fun and impressively "complete" RPG systems but I don't feel compelled to try again since I don't see any unique gameplay features to mess with or anything specific it made me want to try to do. Playing D2 you see skills deep down the tree that sound really fun, so you keep playing. Playing PoE you keep seeing new skill gems with neat effects and supports that compel you to find more so you can combine them in neat ways. A small feature that's unique and distinctive could go a long way.
> unlocking
Yeah, it's (Current Level / Max Upgrade Level)
> delay on movement
Are you referring to the character turning before moving? Characters only do that when at a full stop. I designed it like this because it looked weird (like a vehicle) when characters that started moving (from idle) would move towards their facing direction then turn to their destination.
> flicker strike one shot
Did the green guy have a colored weapon? That mob probably used 'Charge' on you and had a nice rolled weapon, cause mobs' equipment can roll Rarity(stronger base) & Quality(extra modifiers) too. And maybe you weren't lucky enough to find gear that would've absorbed the damage, equipment aside from weapons and accessories usually have damage reduction and resistance.
> overall fun
Thanks
> I don't feel compelled to try again since I don't see any unique gameplay features to mess with or anything specific it made me want to try to do
Yeah, I'm working on objectives to add to the games. In the meantime why not try adding/stacking Multishot or Chain Shot or both to your projectile spell, you can combine compatible skills. You don't have to though, and thanks for the feedback!
>Are you referring to the character turning before moving? Characters only do that when at a full stop.
Yeah, it feels... pretty bad. Again, it's interesting strategically, I like how it makes dodging things and positioning more difficult, it's just kind of a "game sin" to not have any movement happen when the movement key is pressed. I can't think of any other ARPG that has this kind of delay when characters are turning, that's more of an RTS/Dota thing. I could see it turning a lot of people off of the game, they'd just think "the game's laggy" without really understanding it.
>why not try adding/stacking Multishot or Chain Shot or both to your projectile spell, you can combine compatible skills. You don't have to though, and thanks for the feedback!
I totally didn't know you could combine skills, that seems neat! You should probably emphasize it in the skill tree UI more or wherever so people don't miss it
I also just realized I never used the vendor because despite reading the controls I never realized I was in a "Respite Zone" so I never pressed the button. That could also be more clear. It's super important to make this kind of stuff totally unmissable for dummies like me who don't want to pay attention. Maybe just by displaying some text in a corner of the screen saying: "Respite Zone" "Press V for Vendor, H for Stash" whenever you're in one of those zones. I'd imagine that whole system is placeholder and you'll have more visible shops/stashes at some point, though
> I totally didn't know you could combine skills, that seems neat! You should probably emphasize it in the skill tree UI more or wherever so people don't miss it
I have the thing in the skill menu
> make it clear about things that don't have visual/environmental indicators like Respite Zone/Vendor/Stash
Yeah, I used to have buttons dedicated for those on the HUD (where the zoom i/o is at now), but it didn't make sense to have those always around since you spend most your time outside Respite Zones anyway. I was hoping that people would read the description before entering the game but with the feedback I got from the last two Demo Days that's not gonna happen hahaha
> Maybe just by displaying some text in a corner of the screen saying: "Respite Zone" "Press V for Vendor, H for Stash" whenever you're in one of those zones. I'd imagine that whole system is placeholder and you'll have more visible shops/stashes at some point, though
Great idea, thanks. And as you say some current systems are just placeholders and I'll eventually have visible interactables/indicators.
I played more actually using the skill combining and it's pretty fun! The blessings and everything seem kind of OP, I got a setup that made the game super easy, but the combining is pretty interesting and neat. I like how it's balanced around mana costs more than support slots, that's a cool idea. Some kind of optional harder content would be fun, or maybe just a general rebalance. I ended up using Poison Bolts with all the +proj, homing + chain + speed, with the blessings for max MP and MP regen, and I was basically one-shotting everything from around level 35 to uhhh 100 (which was fun while watching a stream)
It's kind of strange you can just grab skills from anywhere though, it kind of seems like "build diversity" wouldn't exist since everyone should just grab every blessing, +proj/homing/chain, etc. Might make sense to lock skills behind classes... Or maybe more advanced/higher level versions of those skills on classes or class advancements or something?
Bugs:
I had a wand and buckler equipped, dragged a Short Staff on, and it let me have the buckler equipped with the 2H. I had to take it off and on a couple times for it to realize I'm not supposed to have a buckler with the 2H
It seemed like Scourge Spell wasn't aggroing enemies? (I almost remember this happening in some other ARPGs so maybe it's intentional, but very powerful)
Picking up gold from far away failed maybe half the time, probably other items too but I noticed it most with gold. Maybe I was just clicking next to it? If so a larger pickup radius or something might be nice?
> I played more actually using the skill combining and it's pretty fun!
Thanks! PoE inspired the mechanic.
> The blessings and everything seem kind of OP
Yeah, In this build it is. I had to make the change to make Blessing Skills viable early game. And the effects I believe the base buff should be sufficient since this is a single-player game.
> Some kind of optional harder content would be fun, or maybe just a general rebalance
I working on some new objectives, far from ready though.
> I was basically one-shotting everything from around level 35 to uhhh 100
Then you're playing the game right.
> It's kind of strange you can just grab skills from anywhere though, it kind of seems like "build diversity" wouldn't exist since everyone should just grab every blessing, +proj/homing/chain, etc.
For projectiles it's the meta. I'll add other skills eventually that will be of interest (I hope).
> everyone should just grab every blessing,
Yes, I don't plan on adding other skill branch themed buff skills because it would just be some variant of the existing Priest Blessing Skills.
> 2h with Shield
That was my bad, I did a fix last night cause dragging vendor equipment then equipping them didn't reduce your gold, and the fix made the bug. I'll publish the fix tonight.
> Scourge Spell no aggro
I missed this in the last update: Scourge Spell still uses a hit score of Infinity instead of -1 like other spell for an absolute hit. I'll publish the fix tonight.
> Picking up gold from far away failed maybe half the time, probably other items too but I noticed it most with gold. Maybe I was just clicking next to it? If so a larger pickup radius or something might be nice?
Loot does have a larger hit box. The things with clicking on loot, when the character moves and you still have the mouse down and it's slightly of the loot's hitbox the command then defaults to move. I'll have this figured out soon. For now though pls use Auto Loot, you can find it at the bottom of the inventory menu
Should've read the instructions, the second round went better. Fun little demo though! The skills menu was a bit hard to navigate before I figured out the wanderer class was the kind of "home" page for the skills. It's also hard to differentiate between the lock and unlocked symbols.
Needs sound effects and some background music. I feel like everything misses half of the time. Stuff like "Skill reset" and "zoom the camera out" being the same button is kinda dumb. Also I can invest a lot into STR, but I feel like my guy's strength isn't really improving that much. Still a really good base for a game.
> no sound or music
Yeah, soon (not soon)
> skill reset
Skill reset doesn't have hotkey, you have to click on (X) . I guess using text for the button might be a bit confusing.
> STR
Treat each point invested as an attack percent multiplier. Though each point does give you a of flat value (0.1~0.2). When max STR/INT you get 10~20 atk and 100% multiplier bringing it to 20~40. And the design is intended to make you rely on your gear.