So ... I've managed to reach the final destination. Out of curiosity ... what happens if you hide? :) As promised, here is the map: https://ibb.co/ZWqSqFG . I've taken some notes regarding things that I liked and things that I would have done differently. Please note that they are not regarding the story - that, by the way, seems very familiar (in a 90's Final Fantasy Super Nintendo kind of way) to me.
So, this is my list:
- I really liked the "comparative damage" fighting system. As far as I understand it, there's a base damage (STR) that gets an additional bonus from (LUCK)?! The SKILL governs, well, the skills/abilities, I guess.
- We've already spoken about the waiting times and the unwanted key presses. If I'm not mistaking, you have programed the game in java. I'm not familiar with the language, but I can show you how this is avoided in python, if you wish, and maybe there's a similar way to sort things out in java.
- I've noticed that at some point I got to fight a ... :unknown: with 1 HP. Is that supposed to happen? I found it extremely funny, thinking about fighting "THE UNKNOWN"
- The potions have no "label", so I drank them without knowing what they did. I kind of figured it out, but it took me a while.
- The buy/sell options and the skill use ones are case sensitive and need to be imputed by hand. You have already figured out how to assign keys to the movement/directional/interaction menu, so I kind of wonder why you didn't use the same system here
- The text is not wrapped, so obviously there are spots where words are broken in the middle at the end of a line.
- Do the monsters "evolve" as you level up?
Overall, I think that the game is a really nice take on the old ZX Spectrum (and before) text adventures with the obvious addition of a combat system and a 90's flavoured story.
There are a few more things that I could add, but I won't do it here, because there are spoilers involved. I've started a subreddit named r/asciiadventures that you can join and we can continue this discussion there. Just start a thread about your game.
Cheers!
That's great you got through it (hopefully not too many deaths?). Thanks for the great feedback, it sounds like you enjoyed it overall. In response to your list:
Damage system: Yes this is mostly from STR and a bit of LUCK. SKILL does have some attack properties when used with other abilities (eg with the Rogue).
Waiting times: I am going to look into this a bit more. I think my keywords are not quite right when looking on stack overflow etc! I would appreciate seeing how you did this in Python.
Unknown: Yes this is a bit of an easter egg/gimmick - I'm glad you found it funny!
Potions: I know what you mean, but sometimes it's more fun to try something out? Similar to how you find properties of ingredients in Morrowind etc. A manual for the game will be coming soon too.
Buy/Sell: Good point, I will update this in future versions.
Mobs: The monsters do scale with the player (apart from bosses), and there are stronger ones in new locations as the game progresses.
Text-wrapping: Good point, I will look at this for future versions.
I'd be keen to discuss further on reddit - I've joined the sub-reddit now! I will make a post introducing the game and then we can chat more.
Thanks again for your detailed and constructive feedback. Your map is great too!
