itch.io

It's been a minute since I've looked at this. It was very rushed to meet the Jam deadline, and I feel like I could've done a lot better.

Maybe I'll revisit the game in the future, and really make it into something more substantial. (If I do, the issue with Bolt will be fixe.)

Looks like the non-reflectable projectiles was another case of me not setting a variable. That should be fixed next time I roll a patch out (which I'll do once I finish some other work and have time to look through attacks for more instances like that), and I'll make sure Purple stops throwing so many Javelins.

Hard Beatrix is mechanically separate from Normal Beatrix, with different base stats and different attacks. You even get a new Bestiary entry!

The Antifairies won't appear in the Hard Challenge. They're holding off for something else, much later. (There is, however, a Hard Tower Lord who's more or less from the same general neighborhood.)

I'll give Petty Fiends/Bitter Jab a look later. The general area is getting attention fairly soon, after all.

Just pushed the patch, about to drop a devlog. Duplicate ingredients for new mixes will still show up in the message, but they'll be combined when the recipe is created. This will apply to any new recipes created.

I'll make a function later that goes through all the recipes and checks for duplicates later, then fixes the recipe and recycle vars.

Looking through these:

-Forgot to get rid of Jirik's "spacing" text in the Bestiary; I use that to help me keep track of how long each line is so I don't go over. The numbers will be out next patch.

-Jirik was also getting the wrong Counter stance, he was using the Piercing Parry that Hedge Knights use. Again, easy fix.

-The Tower Points were a math issue; in the next patch, the math should be properly mathing.

-I added an extra check to the Recycle section to make sure that it's not doubling up in this case. Once I've tested and confirmed that it's working as intended, I'll have another patch out.

1: Oh for the love of... I swear I set Archsage Cloak's gravity amp to the right value, but it's back to the one it was before! Easy to patch, thankfully.

2: Ah, left out a Math.ceil() call in the Fairleaf Laurel. Again, should be easy to fix- I'll make sure this is right and then patch it as soon as I can.

3: Hmm, I guess Evil Eye Jewel does regenerate the burn on hit, now I think about it. There's still a niche benefit to be gained from the reduced turns (namely, Master of Lanterns's Shin Kayakujutsu will deal less damage if you fight her post-Hedge, and I'm sure there will be other enemies that deal damage based on status turns) as well as a slight niche drawback (airblasting the burn to an enemy with the Compressed Gale would get 3 less turns).

The others just passed, actually!

Archsage Cloak, for some reason, was using the wrong internal name for Gravity amp. Both this and the Evil Eye Jewel's Burn timer are easily fixed; while there's only a few cases the latter might matter, there is an enemy that can hit 16 times in one turn, so it'd be better to take 7 Burn ticks than 10 Burn ticks.

Aeternator's AI does call all six Barrier Shifts, but I actually forgot to give him resistance to the Burn, Chill or Soften states, because he absorbs the elements. This is a minor oversight that should be easy enough to fix. He doesn't actually react to Amps in any meaningful way.

Figured out the problem. There was a "b" where there needed to be an "a". No idea why THAT happened, but it should be fixed as soon as I get a bugfix patch out, which should be ready by tomorrow.

Maybe I'll adjust Purple's air time- he spends a variable amount of turns in midair.

Missing Number does remove the last digit- if it's blocked, it's set to 0, and if it's not blocked, it's "removed", setting the target's HP to the value it would be without it.

The Tower Lord in question is slightly weak to all elements! Running a double-element formula was actually a great move there.

Hard Tower Lords give 200 points plus 25 for each Tower Lord defeated. Also, if you still haven't defeated at least one Tower Lord, a Lord you haven't defeated is guaranteed to show up.

I'll set a certain NPC from "Random movement" to "Stand Still"; that should remove that issue for the most part.

That actually is a bug- I just forgot it was there. While it is relatively minor, I might want to work out the timing or add a check in there. Having it cover Frost Burn is another adjustment that makes sense.

I forgot to set the "Remove at Battle End" tag on the Rare Treat. Oops.

Aha, I see the problem: I set the wrong element ID in the shield's state, so it wasn't amplifying the Gravity Amp effect. (It should work like Elemental Amp effects; 700 against Aeternator should become 875 with the next patch, which will be particularly good for a certain task.)

I'll patch that issue with the Point Research and Regen Healing- probably will have more time for that a bit later today.

I've gotten a chance to look at the final thoughts.

If the "black Tower Lord" is the Tower Lord I'm thinking of, that one's very hyper-focused on offense, but has some inherent "prep time" where he uses a certain move. Chilling him or speeding Brill up will probably help a lot; on the other hand, if you can land a Tinderspark+Quickburn on him, that alone can eat through a generous portion of his HP while you block his attacks. As for the "white Tower Lord", don't rely on Immunity potions and, if you have Wind potions, be ready to deflect his big attack (as he always has to "Prepare" it, which will reset deflect immunity).

The post-battle healing would be an interesting idea. Builds that rely on being at low HP might also benefit from an "HP to One" NPC in the first room. I'll think about it! Still figuring out the logistics of buyable research.

Now that I think about it, that'd be a good idea. I don't want to step on the Spell of Clear Thought's toes too much, but smaller amounts of Research probably wouldn't hurt.

Cursed Coronet will be a tricky option to use in the Tower; it's strong for Challengers, but Tower Lords will be rough. I'd run it with the Aeric Raiment so that you can cap the debuff at 50%. (Maybe I could make it so Check doesn't tick down the Cursed Coronet debuff...)

Off the top of my head, I can think of one Challenger type and one Tower Lord with a standard Evade effect. The No-Miss effect could be helpful for both. (Note that "Jump" effects will still avoid a No-Miss attack.)

My Mix checks are probably easy enough to work around. Gleam Sand should be allowed, I'll go through and add the check for that.

Adding loadouts to the Normal and Hard challenges would be a good idea. I could probably reuse some of the code, too.

Did the Lifespark heal the Lanterngeist? The check gets the HP the Lanterngeist was at before the attack hit, so maybe the Lifespark used Power Pool.

Not sure off the top of my head what caused the big bug- maybe Fire related, but likely because Brill got KO'd after the fight. But now's probably a good time for me to go through "timed attack" effects like Volley (and Artillery Fire) and add a check that keeps them from activating if the enemies are all KO'd. (I'll keep it on Echo Tonics because that's useful.) I'll get on that after I've finished up with work.

That might be worth looking into. I'd have to figure out how the ATB system works internally, but again, it's one of those things that I can probably figure out now that I have more general coding experience. I might have to make one more patch between 0.3.7-P3 and 0.4.0.

On my own copy, I've just fixed the issues with Lanterngeists and Win Streaks, as well as a few more I found: a bug where a certain Tower Lord would remove the "1 Gravity Only" limitation on himself (making him hilariously easy) and the Lightning Rod effect on a certain Challenger activating even if that Challenger is KO'd. I'll give the "1 Gravity Only" effect an icon since it would probably be good to show that, and then I'll upload the version with the bugfixes.

Block doesn't go down until after your attack. (While this was unintentional, it's something I'm aware of and try to balance around.)

Lanterngeists need to attack while Burned for the extra Lingering turns to set up, I think? I remember having some difficulty getting it to work, so I'll give the code a look again soon, along with the Hard Win Streaks (which should work, I've got no idea why they wouldn't).

The enemies in the Tower actually slowly gain more HP, Attack, Defense, and Block Strength as you go. An NPC explaining this would be a good idea; I'll place one in the next patch. (That's the likely explanation of the Genji Crab's damage calculation- he might've just had a different Defense total, the base for a Genji Crab is 35.)

I definitely remember just avoiding that one route in Pokemon Gen 2 (I forget the number, but it's the one south of Blackthorn where you find Skarmory) because I didn't want to deal with the ledges, although at least you get Fly by then. Fortunately, this particular bit is fairly short, and it's easy to get back to.

Aha, I found out fixes to the bugs you found! (An invalid method call in Toxic's ramp-up variable and an oversight with the loadouts array's length; both should be patched out in a bit. I DIRECTLY tested Toxic to make sure there were no shenanigans.)

Being able to sell items back is a mistake I wasn't thinking about- that'll be patched out soon as well. That said, defining a custom "point price" for craftable items to use it as a way to recoup mistakes wouldn't be out of the question in the future.

I swear I keep trying to make him attack more and he never does. Odds of Conjure Coins will definitely be going down again.

The healing done by Aeternator's Rising Force will negate some damage, but if his health is still down by 700 then I'm not sure what's going on. I'll have to look into that a bit more. (That said, I'm considering removing said healing as it doesn't really "fit" the description- I wanted a use for the Heal Buster in the fight, but it doesn't really make too much sense to take that away from damage, unlike with Barrier Shift where you're technically doing "negative" damage.)

I probably need to specifically make a plugin call to add Aeternator to the bestiary; since you lose the fight, it doesn't get "counted". Same with Aeternator's conversation, I just need to change a switch check. Minor fixes, easy enough to do. I'll probably do a quick patch with all of that tomorrow morning.

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The sampled items in the Tower are completely random, so duplicates are possible.

A lot of the "Raining Attack" states (and Artillery Fire) could probably use a check to see if the enemy party is actually still standing. That'll take a bit of extra effort as I need to test each one to make sure the edits don't break it, but I'll work on that while I plan out the next update.

Brill was using the Fire Formula III version of the Boom Trap (which has 120 base damage), and it looks like Brill was sitting at 25 ATK, with 76 damage taken meaning +7 Attack from a Ring of Reprisal, a +3 Rock Wall and 7 Stone's Throws adding another 5, and 170% Fire Amp (Fire Affinity and Sage Cloak) on top of a 7% boost from a Fairleaf Laurel. (I went here straight from an Aeternator attempt, Brill was kitted out to deal damage and deal it fast.)

That's 157 damage, minus 10 from the Corsairrot's defense = 147. Multiply by 1.7 and then by 1.07 and that's 267.393.

Sorry about the late response! Currently putting some additional stuff together before the Screenshot Saturday post.

Banes double elemental damage, yes. Resistances will definitely be nice to have against Aeternator, as he's got plenty of elemental damage. Be careful, though, because he's also got plenty of non-elemental attacks that'll hit pretty hard too.

I could definitely see the bandits staking out the lighthouse as a potential hideout. Of course, they wouldn't really be too interested for long, given the place has giant snakes and giant roaches.

Ah, the unicode issue was because of a program I used to add in the research notetags;  it messed with the description. Fix will ship with the next patch.

I probably could add some dedicated code to make sure ingredients of the same ID combine properly in each Mix. I'll give that a look soon.

Hmm, that's actually hard to say. I'll go ahead and change it to 25.

Boss refights would probably come later, after the Main Story. And I'd do it in a manner similar to the "Boss Endurance" mode in Kirby's Adventure/Nightmare in Dream Land that I could never beat when I was a kid. (I always choked at Meta Knight or Dedede.)

You still get the same Tower Points, and the rewards upstairs will update accordingly, but there also might be some unique rewards in this challenge depending on different "high scores" in the challenge. I'll have to think about it!

Yep, the different elements ask for different types of research. I specifically remember that Fire, Water and Thunder want Offensive as a secondary research for Windup, while Earth, Wind and Ice want Defensive as a secondary for Windup, with all of them using Offensive for damage (because it's damage) and Defensive for delay (because getting ready faster after it helps you defend against the next attack).

The Invisible Soda Keg and bizarre force-field-projecting tarp are easy fixes. They'll ship with the next patch.

I missed the Phantom bug from earlier. Looks like it currently doesn't detect it if Brill doesn't actually move. While this is an edge case, it would be good to get this working, so I could probably put the event on the Phantom itself.

EDIT: Yeah, that was easy. It'll ship with the next patch!

Ah, the code doesn't check if it's the Hidden Forgemaster.

That's not intended, but it's also not a big deal since it doesn't affect the recipes at all. I'll probably get that with the next patch.

Somehow the Multiplier isn't  being removed. I'll give that a closer look and release a patch ASAP.

Oh boy, looks like something's setting game variable 239 way too high. That's be the Windup multiplier, which is used to calculate the amount that certain Modifiers affect Windup. It should not be in the 100s. I'll look through and figure out where it's being set.

EDIT: Found it! Should have a fix out in a bit.

I specifically made Guardbreak + Split Strike more expensive because of how strong their synergy is. It's the same trick Hedge Knights have, but a Split Strike Mix can have 50 damage per hit and an element attached to it.

I don't know HOW that event ended up checking Matter rather than Defensive, but it did. Thankfully an easy fix.

There is basically a limit of two ingredient "types" that can be added by Modifiers.

Shoot, I knew a few would slip through.

The cancel button taking you to the wrong place is an incorrect variable assignment. This will be fixed, and if you're still in the Earth Cave Stair, you'll be warped back to where you're supposed to be.

The lack of research drops was due to a variable name in the wrong place, likely moved when adding something else in. This will be corrected with the next patch.

The Unicode characters are a "bug" with the name entry screen; they're placeholders I didn't get around to replacing yet.

Undergravel is likely an incorrect variable assignment. Gonna look through it and the others and get back to you ASAP.

Enemy 289 is likely one of the new ones that'll be added in 0.3.7-P2.

EDIT 1:

Multi Target listing Defensive twice is likely due to some Elements using Defensive research for both Windup and Delay. I'll adjust that later. Right now, I'm still trying to reproduce the Split Strike 0 research bug. What conditions does it occur under?

EDIT 2:

AHA. Found the problem, the "is research valid" check was looking at the wrong variable. I'll have that fixed up.

EDIT 3:

No, wait, I still haven't found it. Going to keep looking.

EDIT 4:

I was jumping to a label before assigning a variable! I'll make sure THAT is dealt with thoroughly, and then have a bugfix out.

Here's what still needs to be done, off the top of my head:

• Good portion of the enemy research drops still need to be done (probably the most time-consuming part)
• I haven't completely gone over all the switches to determine bonus research drops, that still needs finishing
• There are a few minor UI tweaks I need to go over
• I'm going to need to do some very extensive testing to make sure few to no major bugs or issues ship with the update

Aside from that, the only thing really holding me back is other work outside of Ruphand that I've got to finish. Still, I should be able to have My Mix out fairly soon; at the most, it should be done midway through June.

After that's released, my next goal will be the Hard Mode Challenge Tower, followed by Cloudtop City and a sidequest that goes with it. (I thought about making Mix available mid-fight as well, but that might have to go on the backburner, since it's a fairly major undertaking and Research already goes a long way toward encouraging fights.)

...Whoops. How'd that get in there? I played Runescape, I should know how steel works. 

That'll be corrected next patch!

Yep, music's supposed to fade out there. Makes the room a little more ominous!

Ooh, I like that idea! It shouldn't be too hard to implement, either. I'll look into removing the turn counter from Block at some point, unless for some reason I make a status effect that inflicts a multi-turn Block and combine it with an enemy that uses Thunder.

I don't think Block Strength can go below 0, but I'll have to test what would happen if it did.

Oh no. That's something to do with the unimplemented My Mix, I need to fix that. (EDIT: Fix was thankfully pretty easy, should have a re-patch up very soon.)

SPOILER:

The Phantom Magus is still at large after the quest, so the dialogue is still unchanged.

Looks like I'll need to draw attention to:

• Blocking, because that Bishop just before the switch to Elden Ring would've gotten stomped if its Light Arrows were blocked.
• The bookcases at the beginning of the elemental rooms, because an Earth Formula would've reduced its damage from 6x4 to a much more manageable 2x4 and the bookcases directly point this out.

The bookcases in particular deserve special attention; they state what each element does, but might be dismissed as "filler". (Though reading "filler" dialogue in general is highly encouraged. I put hints in there. And lore. And some goofy joke lines.)

Another thing I might do later (when I don't have entire new systems in the works specifically made to encourage fighting enemies) is go over old hidden passages and add an extra graphic to cover the top of Brill's hat when she moves through them. I'm keeping the different graphic on the passage itself because that's supposed to be a "tell"; Garett would've mentioned that in the stream if he hadn't been ignored.

Also, I didn't actually end up needing to grind ingredients in my own playthroughs. That said, I did make a habit of using Sample after every encounter, and had Recycling attached as soon as possible. I also know the ins and outs of how the combat system works (since, well, I made the thing). Maybe I'll put a few extra chests down in the Earth Cave's big exit stair, at least.

I might look into using smaller text to display the added Modifier effects. Combined with the limit of 4 modifier slots and the explanation of each modifier being included in the process of making the mix, descriptions should be feasible.

Catalysts will use the existing Catalytic Formula status effect, so the main element that will deal damage is the Trigger.

A Split Strike potion would be fantastic for Burn and Block Buster effects, and would be powerful if you have a lot of Attack to outpace the enemy Defense (so Water might see some use too, or Earth if you stack Stone's Throw).

I've got colors ready for the base elements. I wasn't originally planning to, but I could pick one for each of the combined mixes, now that I think about it! There's only 36 permutations, so it shouldn't be that much trouble.