itch.io

Hi dinre,

Sorry about the delay! I've been swamped at work with a new position (still getting my bearings). I've uploaded the most recent build (1.40.x) to itch a few days ago, but have yet to post the actual text related to the Pupdate (the changelog). For 1.40.x, that reads as follows:

Ephemeral Tale 1.40.1 Changelog
Fixed a bug where Butter Knife wasn’t properly interacting with the damage system
Fixed a bug where (under a very specific circumstance) Alchemist’s Trick could be exploited
Fixed a bug where legacy saves wouldn’t have the player turn into a mermaid when coming into the Sunken Summit
Fixed a number of passibility issues inside of the Sunken Summit
Rare enemies are now tougher once the player has reached the Realm of Shadows

Hey there,

I'd like to submit Ephemeral Tale for consideration.

Ephemeral Tale is a combination of classic JRPGs and loot-driven games like Borderlands. Players fight battles in the style of Final Fantasy, but those battles are fast and frequent, and drop lots of procedurally generated loot. Players die often, and this re-rolls the dungeon's loot and secrets, but players keep their loot and spoils of combat as they continue to delve into the many dungeons in the game.

Thank YOU, FDMP! I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed your time w/ the game!! I hope that future patches will live up to your expectations! :)

-- Ryan

I'm so glad to hear that!! Thank you for your incredible patience, and I hope you enjoy the game <3

I will make sure to put an F in the chat for your fallen comrade. Do you happen to have an Android phone? If so, I can get you on a beta branch over there in the coming days (not necessarily for testing the issue, just for your own enjoyment).

Hey Freeshark,

I've got a beta rewrite ready for the menu input issue, and was curious if you would be willing to give it a whirl.

Thanks for the report. I'll investigate it. <3

Good catches! The [128] was a debugging check that got left in there by accident. Both should be fixed in the next patch.

Hey there,
Seems that an old bug popped up at some point in our internal re-write of the menu code. Should be fixed in Tuesday's patch, as we've rolled back the menu to an older version while we finish the overhaul. Thanks for the notice!

Hey Freeshark,

Wanted to update you and let you know that we've begun the process of rewriting the menu from scratch to address this issue. Our internal tests can't consistently produce the failure, but it's evident that it exists. As such, we plan on re-building it to avoid it ever occurring in the first place. Sorry for the massive delay, as it's quite a crucial system so we want to ensure we don't mess it up!

Hey Freeshark, I wanted to let you know that I've got a more talented programmer assigned to this bug now. As soon as I know when the fix is going live, I'll be sure to let you know!

Thanks, Freeshark! I'm currently investigating the differences in implementation in the equip system and the consumable system to try and figure out why this issue exists in one and not the other. Apologies for the constant questions on my part!

Hi Freeshark,

Do you play on controller, or KB/M?

Hey Shark,

Sorry to hear that, but thank you for the update! Can you tell me if there's any form of information in your log file (install location\www\log.txt) if you have it occur and then exit the game? 

Here's the situation: the main menu doesn't use the same input system as the rest of the game for reasons that are valid, but a bit in depth. What's occurring is that there appears to be fringe cases where the input is grabbed, but isn't properly handed off to the menu. It takes 10 or so seconds for this hand off to fail, and that's when it will allow you to try it again. I haven't been able to figure out what causes the hand off to fail, however, as it seems to be tied to hardware in some odd way.

I don't want you to think that I'm blowing you off, as I'm 100% dedicated to getting that bug squashed, just balancing between trying to recreate that bug, working on the weekly stuff, and the behind the scenes stuff. I've been in touch with a few folks trying to figure out exactly what the issue is. It's a very strange bug, and I'm happy to tell you that it's given some incredibly gifted programmers some head scratches!

But yes, if it's printed anything into that log file after the bug occurs (the log is cleared every time you launch the game), please do let me know!

Also, out of curiosity, does it occur when equipping gear or just for consumables? I've only ever seen it impact consumables myself, hence my asking.

Thanks for the update!  I'm gonna have to do some digging into the menu code to figure out what's going on. Sorry for the trouble, and I'm glad to hear that it works to some extent now (even if it's not anywhere close to ideal). I'll get back to you ASAP, once I better know what's occurring or how to approach it.

Currently equipment breaks when out of durability (i.e., is removed from the inventory BOTW style), and gives the player a repair kit. :)

Hi Freeshark,

I went ahead and made a change on my internal build to try and address the issue. When the next update hits on Tuesday, hopefully it will be addressed. I'm not entirely sure if the change will work, as I can't get the issue to crop up for me, but if it doesn't then I can move towards another attempt at a fix. Sorry for the slow movement on it!

-- Ryan

Hey there,
I'm still investigating the cause of this bug. It seems to either be two separate bugs, or one bug that presents in different ways. So I'd like to collect more information, if you guys would be so kind:

1. After a period of time, were you able to cancel out of the menu?
2. Is it a consistent issue that occurs for you, every single time?
3. What are your PC specs, if you know them?

I'm starting to get a rough idea as to what might be causing it, but I'm not entirely certain yet. The more information that I have, the better! I'm currently unable to recreate this in any form of consistent manner. So the more I know, the more I have to work with :)

Hi there, Balduranne!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I'll continue to make changes to the durability system as time goes on-- first, I wanna see how much the upcoming update shakes things up :) I have been considering some other twists on it, like having armor breaking and giving Power or something of the like. Your feedback is noted, however! If it has to go in the end, then it has to go!

Thanks for the kind remarks again!

For input-- it's worth noting that you can completely rebind the controls to your liking. But I agree 100% on E being the default for confirm-- Right now, it's just space bar. A second button like E just makes sense! I'll add it to the list :)

Hey all,

This thread is intended to serve as a hub for any feedback you have regarding player progression, or general game balance. If an enemy hits too hard, or an ability doesn't feel unique enough, or if a skill-tree investment doesn't feel worth-while enough, let me know here!

This is but one of many, many ways to deliver feedback. Feel free to hit me up on Discord, Twitter, here, or even via e-mail-- whatever is most comfortable for you. :)

Hey there Keron,

If the game is opening, it should show up twice in the Details tab in task manager:

I'll continue to research it on my end, but in the interim, I can look into packaging a UWP build for the upcoming version on Tuesday, if that would be an acceptable stop-gap? I can't guarantee how Windows would handle save files or anything of the like for version upgrades, as I've never actually tested a UWP build (or version upgrades for them). I can't guarantee weekly updates for that, either, as those builds are somewhat time consuming to get the ball rolling on.

Hey there Freeshark,

I've seen this happen intermittently myself. I'll add it to the list and try and track it down. Thanks for the report, and sorry for the trouble!

Hi there Keron,
After consulting w/ my internal programmer + some outside programmers, the best bet that we have is that your anti-virus was freaked out by the game. The game runs in a virtual sandbox for both asset protection purposes and stability across a wide array of hardware, and this is sometimes mistakenly flagged as malware by programs like Malwarebytes (that one in particular has thrown flags in the past). If it's attempting to quarantine that specific behavior (behind the scenes or otherwise), it would explain the massive hang. It should be on the whitelist, if at all possible, and if the behavior continues to persist while whitelisted we can try and investigate other avenues to pursue. Longer term (once out of EA, for example), we may try and go to a different platform like UWP or something similar as an alternative for situations like this.

Apologies for the delay, I wanted to make sure that I was talking to folks who knew that stuff well before saying for certain one way or another.
 -- Ryan

No problem-- I'll try and recreate it on my end.

Thanks, Keron-- I'll investigate. Out of curiosity, does a reboot resolve the issue & what anti-virus solution do you use? I've had reports from users that their anti-virus software gets freaked out by the way the game loads content (which is to dump the game into RAM for consistent loading times across devices), and have had to report it to a few of the major players to get it cleared.

Hi there,
For the room w/ the blocked off crystal, there's two paths to that room. If you're in the central chamber and head left, you'll be in a room with a small body of water, and three exits. One to the right, which takes you back to the central chamber, one to the left, which takes you to the room w/ the blocked off crystal, and one to the bottom, which is the path that loops back around to that blocked off crystal. :)

Thank you for the post! I've been concerned about the caves, so things like this help guide me in what to change in the future.

Hey there,
I think I've resolved the issue. If you could confirm/deny as much on your end when you get some time, I'd appreciate it :)
Thanks,
-- Ryan

Hey there,
I'm currently unable to install the desktop app to help debug this issue, as the itch.io servers are getting utterly slammed at the moment. Until I'm able to address that, would you mind downloading the game through the game page directly?
Sorry for the inconvenience,
-- Ryan

https://zserv.itch.io/ephemeral-tale
We'd be happy to be a part of this!

Thanks for the awesome footage, and your kind words! We'll keep working to make the game even better :)

Hey, thanks a bunch for sharing this! We're honored to be included, and will continue to work diligently to prove our worth to you guys by making Ephemeral Tale the best it can be! :)

Preview is up! Thanks for the suggestion!

Hey all,
Just wanted to share the exciting release of our debut title, Ephemeral Tale! Ephemeral Tale is a loot-driven dungeon crawler, focusing on unique builds, quirky enemies, and memorable encounters! We decided to release into Early Access so that we could increase the amount of content on a regular schedule, while also ensuring that we're releasing things that the community wants to see!

https://zserv.itch.io/ephemeral-tale

We're currently priced at $5USD, but this price will raise over time as we add more content and get closer to the finish line. We hope that you'll give us a look, and wish you all the best in your personal endeavors!

--

Dawdling Dog Team

Yeah, I'll get a preview up tonight for you :)

Hey all,

This thread will serve as a central hub for changes that I've committed to making/issues I want to address in a transparent manner. With any luck, this will allow me to not only keep track of what the current outstanding issues are, but also allow you as a player to hold me accountable (and know what's currently on my radar).

1. Flesh out the world and characters more [perpetually in progress]
2. Improve presentation of various gameplay systems (victory/defeat screens, durability, etc)
3. Deal with resolution discrepancies (mixing resolutions) by changing face sets in main menu to be more scale appropriate [In progress, first sweep 4/7, second sweep 4/14, third sweep 5/12, 4th sweep 6/30]
4. Further implement any accessibility changes that we can for those that are differently-abled

This list will fluctuate and grow/shrink as time goes on, and development continues. If you're concerned about an issue that isn't listed above, please feel free to make a post about it.

Hey all,

If you run across any issues during your playtime with Ephemeral Tale, please feel free to post them in this thread and see if they've already been addressed or are on the bug watch list. Really, report them in whatever fashion is most convenient for you: Twitter, email, here-- whatever works.

As I am just one guy, I would ask that you have patience in regards to any bugs that you do encounter or come across. Finding, recreating, and solving these bugs is a time consuming process. With that said, here is the "bug watch list":

• COSMETIC ONLY - Opening the save menu and then backing out to the main menu can sometimes cause the main menu to open with the save menu’s backdrop
• On certain machines, the screen can appear "zoomed in" in specific areas (like the Forgotten Forest). This can be worked around by setting the Visual Filters option to OFF, and restarting the game.
• The name input screen can get a lil weird if you input a name like "MMMMMMM"
• Save files can report inaccurate play times under certain circumstances [Solution being worked on]
• Using consumable items can intermittently enter a state where the confirm button becomes unresponsive [Investigating]

Anything tagged "Cosmetic Only" means that the bug is purely visual, and that no save data/game state/etc has been impacted by these.

Performance related bugs (like the last one on the list) are currently being investigated, with a patch planned for the future. I'm not comfortable committing yet to a time frame on that, as we want to ensure that we do it properly.

You can use the tileset in Asesprite to get the palette, or extract it using the tileset as a source in GIMP.

Hey man, I would be interested to know how you turned off the text softening built into the engine, if you don't mind sharing that info?

Yeah! Makes palette swapping a bit faster :)

Any chance for a palette? :)