itch.io

You have to get every character perfect, to ask a question. It's so much hassle, it might be better to watch Neco's video where he asks just about all the questions you can ask.

In the comments, people said they had to edit their file access on the folders, to allow for saving and loading. If you do a search, through, you should be able to find them and how they got it working.

Well, if there was, you wouldn't be able to find it....

Best method is to get a good helmet, as those afford eye protection and prevent the blindness. The iron mask, bassinet, and a couple of others.

I'd like to know this, too

Time to start again....

That sounds like the bug Neco got in one of his recent videos about the game. He fixed it by, amazingly, walking his way to one of those bells that change between past and present.

I have completed an update for the Fear & Hunger Rebalance modification. It is now compatible with the latest version.

This mod is a demo focusing on the early areas of the game, rebalancing enemies near the start of the game, as well as the States system, the Defence/Armour system, Hunger, and fixing several bugs. It also has an unlimited save book, for bug-testing and as an easy difficulty option.

Here is the link to the mod: https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance

You have to talk to the yellow mages to get the amulet

The crow bed, in the basement area. From the start of the game, you can get there by going left. It is near Iron Shakespeare.

The Crow Key is used near the start of the game, not far from the bed. I think that's close enough without spoilers.

You can go to the Wolf Cult in the mines to refill everyone's hunger, if you're desperate. 50% chance of dying.

You can look for spell books in the libraries, sacrifice people, or use soul stones to learn spells, which tend to be far stronger than melee.

Outlander, you have to talk to him in the rabbit courtyard, then find him in the tree.

Dark priest, you have to talk to him twice and no more, in the library just before the rabbits, then in the library below near Legarde. You have to give him an eclipse talisman, which I think you get from the yellow mages.

Hope this helps!

Strangely, I only get the option to buy the game on the main page. I have to go to my library to get down to the download page. Not your fault, just something weird about Itch.

An alternative possibility is to simply reduce the chance of doubling up on books.

Or five pipes....

Itch works a bit funny. You have to go to Library in your user panel in the top right, then click download for F&H.

Not certain the steam version will be any better, but I believe Orange said that anyone with the itch version can request a steam key? I don't remember, so don't take my word for it. 

No need to be sorry, Schneeli. I hope that the next patch removes this bug, so that you can go back to enjoying the game.

I don't believe it is save compatible. To test it, you could try copying your F&H folder, then overwriting the copy/original with the new install.

You're in luck, it just launched on Steam :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1002300/Fear__Hunger/

Now that the new version is finally out, I'm considering expanding the mod to work with it, and maybe add a few enemies, or the fear system back in.

Disappointingly, the mod hasn't got much feedback. However, what feedback there is has been entirely positive. What's more, it has been downloaded more than 130 times as of today. For this reason, I hope to look into expanding it, to work with the new version of Fear & Hunger.

What a lovely response :)

Yeah, the script ought to be cleaned up, really. You can probably get away with the script at its current level... but it does bug a lot of people.
You probably already know, but you can avoid the coin tosses by Guarding. It is still pretty easy to die, though. If you want to try something a bit easier and more balanced, there is a community patch/mod of the game which added unlimited saving (for testing purpose), and rebalanced stuff. It only has the first couple of areas of the game, currently, made as more of a demo for how the game can be rebalanced: https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance

Orange stated that an update will be released at the same time as the Steam release, which is remaining at January 21st :-/ . Here's hoping that the game doesn't suffer too badly, due to remaining bugs/balance issues.

I mean... you didn't even know Steam was a big deal. I figure you should trust the people with experience with Steam, instead of guessing how it might go. That's not doom and gloom versus naked positivity, this is experience versus dreaming.

I think people do check the Itch.io pages. You can even notify everyone who bought your game with the analytics options, so as to tell them about major updates/patches. And if they complain about bugs, when there is a patch you released on the main game page... then their complaints are truly hollow, and will ring so to others.

If you patched the game, fixed some bugs, and the balance of stuff like high miss rate and enemies that hit you with the parts you just destroyed, the major youtubers of the game would all be complimenting you for it, for responding to their feedback. They'd give a positive impression about the game and its development. They are dedicated people who keep track of updates and are part of the community, so they would notice updates and patches. As it is, we can only guess at how many people were turned off a purchase because of bugs in the let's plays. 

By the time the update comes out, most of the LPers will have finished F&H. We don't even know what viewership the extra area you're adding will get compared to the main campaign. People like endings, so after Ending A gets posted on youtube, it's likely viewership will start to decline.

I think you shouldn't worry so much about little things like, "it's awkward to download a patch off the game page," and worry about the big ones like, "thousands of people are witnessing bugs in my game." A poor presentation on Steam is a big one, too; whereas releasing a couple of weeks later would be a small one.

Didn't you see my comment? Sometimes, I don't get a notification when someone replies to me, so it may've happened to you. I asked you why updates are hard to make. There are people playing the game, right now, on youtube, showcasing horrible game-breaking bugs. So, I asked you why it is that updates are "so cumbersome," as you called them. Not all changes would be save-game compatible, sure, but an amount of the bug fixing should be, and it'd be easy to test for that. From what I know of RPG Maker MV and itch, I can't see how it would be cumbersome.

It's no good releasing the game in an unfinished state, then saying you're working hard to finish it after releasing it. People are very sick of early-access games these days, and Steam reviews tend to be cynical. A lot of developers promise to finish/fix their games, and never get around to it, so it will read as BS to the Steam community. Since you said you don't know anything about Steam ("I didn't know Steam was such a big deal"), I figured I should tell you.

To repeat myself, bug fixes should be launched as soon as possible, both so that people get a good impression of the game and its development, and so that you can see if new bugs are introduced. It also lets you turn your attention to other bugs that crop up.

Thanks for correcting me. If the main character has a bow equipped, they can use the arrows, and those are pretty useful (if you don't lose an arm...). So, if you get lucky and find a bow, then when you find iron arrows that will be nice buff. I'd say that's a fine element of positive RNG.

Empty scrolls are really nice.... You can get a Sergal Spear or a Book of Enlightenment, or learn any spell. But... that's NOT RNG, is it? It's like cheat codes, if you know the codes, you can get three Sergal Spears with three scrolls. So, it is random a to whether you get a scroll, and if you know how to use it you can get some very epic stuff.
But... that's basically a way for people who use walkthroughs or have won the game to have an easy time beating it the second time, not really RNG of the style of other rogue-likes, like Binding of Isaac. You yourself have just said they're potentially game-breaking. If you wanted to balance that, you could make it so that really powerful items can only be asked for once, and that it's related to your affinity with the associated god. There are a lot of easy fixes, if you take some time to balance and fix.

What everyone expects is a balanced game and a bug-free experience. Saying, "Well, there's RNG, that makes it OK," doesn't excuse bugs, it doesn't excuse stuff like a high miss rate everyone complains about (particularly youtubers). These problems persist through all playthroughs, and having to pray that you don't miss the enemy twice in a row and don't run into a game-breaking bug isn't RNG design, that's relying on God to fix the game.

For veterans of the game, it's pretty easy to speed-run the game, yeah. Even for veterans, the RNG of a 10% miss rate, and some other aspects, don't really improve the game but rather make it feel more tedious. It often leads to having to load back to earlier saves. The items part isn't really an issue, since there are so many item containers that it all balances out to a pretty similar item haul (this does mean less positive RNG for future runs, though).

The Coin Flips aren't really the issue. Most of those can be avoided through strategy. Also, there is a chance of getting books of enlightenment from book cases, it used to be the only way to get them in the early versions.

Scrolls are, admittedly, the truly game-changing item, if you're an expert of the game. If you get three scrolls, you can get three duplicates of Miasma, or better yet three Sergal Spears, and start cutting everything to pieces. They're kind of like cheat-code items, and while they certainly help, they might even help too much.

Correct me if I'm wrong, iron arrows are only useful to the Outlander? Otherwise, you need a bow, a skillbook that teaches you to use them outside of combat, two arms(?), and iron arrows? The iron arrows can help the Outlander, they're nice to find, but I fail to see how the RNG is helping much in this case.

Something more to point out, is you search probably three hundred containers over a play-through. This actually makes for less RNG in relation to loot, it should balance it out so you always get roughly the same haul. In the games mentioned, they tended to have rather few treasure rooms, which could hold amazing buffs that stack together, or just reasonable ones. This made for a greater sense of RNG, positive RNG.

Beartraps are cool, not debating that. But, is that what you meant by being able to find the best equipment at the start? A couple of bear-traps? Those are one-use items, and can't be used against most of the bosses in the game. Their best use is just holding off Crow Mauler so you can get past him. Though, running away after you enter combat works pretty well, too, so I'm not sure they're even that much help.

Explosive vials are pretty rare in the early game, if you find one you can use it to speed-run pretty effectively. Extras are nice, as they do work to make most fights a lot easier. So, I agree... if you find a dozen explosive vials at the start, the game will be a lot easier.

Don't you think that is a pretty specific scenario of RNG helping? In the examples I gave, Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon, there are a lot of item combos you can find that make you pretty powerful, in a variety of ways.

There is a talk option. Orange should make it that you have the option to say, "Wait for me in the hub area," like in most RPGs.

That makes it sound like you picked a date you can't honestly keep, in terms of releasing a working, bug-free game with achievements. So, I'd say it is more honest to move back the date, so you can release a game everyone will be happy with. A whole lot of successful games have pushed back their release dates, often at the last minute--it's totally common in the industry . People complain, but they're still happy when the game does come, and it does well.

How much do you play the game these days, Orange? There isn't really any strongest equipment you can get, by RNG.

You can get plate mail, if you're lucky, but it only reduces damage from slashing attacks, so that little to no difference to a run. You might get lucky and find a couple more healing vials... but those are unlikely to save you from a bad run. I know from certain chests like Nosramus' one, you can get a Sorcerer's Stone... but that just reduces your alcohol and opium intake.

The only equipment RNG could help you to get that'd make much difference, is books... and even those aren't a big help.

You could find an Ancient book, but that's as likely to kill you as help you, and the spell you get is random. Only useful right after a save game, so you can save-scum it... but many players die before they can save. If you do save-scum it, you can get something like Dark Orb, and greatly reduce the difficulty. So that is one option after a hundred play-throughs till you get lucky, or just through save-scumming a hundred times.
The alchemist books are useful, but more use for a successful long-term run rather than helping you survive short-term, however. 
Skill books are probably the most useful, but even then some skills are far more useful than others.
The only books that can really make a reliable difference to your run, are Books of Enlightenment.

If we compare this to other roguelikes like Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac, there is a good possibility of getting some truly powerful, so that even an unskilled player has a shot at progressing deep into the game.

With Fear & Hunger, honestly... there is loads more negative RNG in it, almost no RNG is positive in the game. And the thing is... the two games I mentioned are skill based, even with bad RNG you can get through with pure skill. In Fear & Hunger, it's a turn based RPG, even playing totally optimally you can die and lose.

I encourage you to work on the balance more. Currently, the only resource management I see in the game is getting enough cloths to treat all the bleeding that occurs, or being lucky enough to find the crafting book that teaches you how to rip up clothing to get more cloths (which, clearly, you should have already known how to do).

I think we have a disconnect here, between demand and supply. Since a number of people want a steam version for achievements, then releasing it without them will only result in more negative reviews than delaying to put them in. Is there some reason 21st of Jan is so important?

The Crow Bed ought to give you a free save, the first time you use it, the same as the Rabbit and Wolf cults. The most common and frustrating death I hear about, again and again, is people trying to use that bed, so they don't need to go through char creation again.

We like your artistic vision.  That's why we're sticking around.  What we don't like is the bugs. Most critically, the idea of making a major Steam release before fixing the bugs and balance issues sounds dooming to this project.

There's actually a community patch/mod, that might help with what you mention. RNG is reduced, fights and status effects are rebalanced, and there is a Save Book added in for testing/debugging purposes. It was made to be an example of how the game might be rebalanced, officially.

Here is a link, if you'd like to check it out: https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance

Are you having any particular difficulties with uploading updates, Orange? If there's any trouble with upload speed, you could try uploading a hotfix separate from the main game, with the related .json files. The mod I'm working on, for example, is just little json files, so it's easy for me to upload new updates to itch.io.

If at all possible, you should be uploading new updates continuously, so as to squash known bugs and find out any others.

The only trouble with Steam, is the reviews tend to be more... unforgiving. The game still has a lot of bugs, unfortunately. My personal fear is that it would be considered in the same light as Fallout 76, and is so brutalized by early reviews that it never gets the limelight it deserves. Not a lot of youtubers have picked up this game, and if it isn't careful, it might not reach out to more, so I fear.

To be quite honest, you should not have to flip a coin the first time you use the bed. Just like the first time you use the Rabbit cult and etc..


Hey Chicken. Many people are very concerned about the RNG you mentioned, and saving balance in the game. There is a community patch that was made to address and try to improve these issues, reducing miss chance, and rebalancing some of the mechanics (making it so DEF reduces damage in the formulas, for example).

It also includes a book of unlimited saving for now, while the mod (and the game, in some ways) is in a debugging state.

Here's the link, if you'd like to give it a look. I hope the official game starts to consider these points of balance: https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance

Sorry, didn't realize the ballista didn't always spawn. In that case, you just need to start touching all the right and left walls in the place, until you see signs of a secret room, or go through one of them.

Come on in and tell us what you think of the mod. You can give us feedback about Fear & Hunger the game, too, and tell us if there's anything you'd like to see.

The position of the LEver room has changed, now. That, or it just changes between seeds. Go past the Ballista guard, near to where the Caged stairwell is (the one you can't enter). Somewhere around there... there's a false wall to the left you can walk through, where the lever is hidden. Go along all the walls, I think you can see the lever room if you do

Oh, wow.... awesome work! Thanks for finding this fix, and sharing it with everyone!

Hey Wili. There are some community members who have been dissatisfied with the balance, and want more time spent on reworking it. I also worry that going to a Steam release before correcting this could be hurt the game's future.

We put together a community patch, a rebalance mod that attempts to make everything more reasonable. If you're interested, please have a look at it, and let us know if we can change it to be better. We might want to reduce dodge chance and increase accuracy, even further. And, if it is good... I hope Orange looks at it, and considers using it as a template.
https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance

Yeah, the coin tosses at character generation are unreasonable. The Outlander can get a fear of everything, if he fails one of his coin tosses.

I'm sorry you've been having difficulties with the saving system, it is the hardest until you get good at the game, then have a really good run, in which case you do get some saves to fall back on in future. The mod I mentioned does include a debugging tool, which less you save freely. At the very least, you could use that to save the game right after creating a Merc, so you can skip the character gen process.

Hey Crow. If you find you're having too much trouble with the saving system, there is a mod that allows you to save anywhere. It's part of a Rebalance mod made by the discord community, but I believe you can install the save book without changing the balance much: https://mask.itch.io/fear-hunger-rebalance