jack1974
Jun 28, 2018
If it was 10 damage, I would just stick with pistols since they don't cost PP and inflict almost as much damage. Considering soldiers and scouts can inflict at least twice as much damage on their turn, it would be better just save the PP for any healing or debuffing. Maybe instead of fixed damage, have Damage = Base damage + character level. Alternatively, you try reduced percentage for bosses (example: 20% for regular enemies 15% for bosses).
I forgot to say, that damage is ignoring armor resistances (except Psionic of course, but enemies with Psionic resistances will be rare). So it's not automatic that you'll always do more than 10 with any weapon. For example in that battle above, none of my other party members could do more than 1 damage on that boss with the weapons I had (the explosive/acid resistances broke my weapons attacks).
So I don't think it's too bad, also 10 dmg is just Harm level 1. On Harm level 5 you do 50 dmg... not bad I'd say
However I could also have a damage multiplier based on character's level, that would work too.
More feedback on skills
-Steal Life: It doesn't work as described. Life drained seems to be based on current HP rather than total. Despite the description, it still steal below the minimum HP. I think Heal is a better overall when it comes the psionic's role as a support class.
-Into the Fray: I'm not sure what's supposed to do. I haven't found any use for it yet
-Critical Hit: The description could use tweaking to indicate how much delay is reduced without pointing points and resetting.
- Drain Power: I could see it being useful at higher levels when enemies may have a higher HP pool. At the moment, it's pretty useless.
Yes steal life is broken like it was Harm (using current HP instead of total HP!). Into the fray is useful only with enemies that use protect, so that's why you can't use it (I didn't had any enemy with protect skill but I could do it on next update).
jack1974
Jun 29, 2018
As said I'm going to use a full changelog even for the prototype
I think I fixed most of the problems reported. I didn't fix Drunk Shot yet because I'm thinking how I could change it. Not sure if hitting another target would work (I mean, it's fun, but not sure if people would really like to use that beside laughing
). For full list of changes see the first post.
Jaeger
Jun 29, 2018
0.6.3
-Time Bomb: The defense reduction is nice, but the damage isn't worth the 3 turn delay. An appropriate-leveled weapon can inflict the same amount of damage in fewer turns. It can't be stacked on the same enemy since it only resets the counter.
-Fear Tactics: It doesn't work at all. The battle log says the skill was successful, but it doesn't do anything yet.
-Disarm: It's similar to Shock, an effective tool for locking down enemies. Despite the slightly slower delay, the fact that debuff doesn't wear off by attacking an enemy, makes it more powerful than Shock.
-Shock: The fact that that paralysis counter goes down when attack makes it a little less abusable than disarm. It's a redudant skill if Joshua/Lisa is a scout with Disarm.
-Strike Back: Unfortunately, it doesn't trigger a counter attack like intended.
-Steal Life- It likes minimum has been set to 9, in spite of the description
http://oi66.tinypic.com/ifvrrb.jpg
jack1974
Jun 30, 2018
Thanks for the report, I think I know already why some skills doesn't work and which tweaks to make (for example I agree that Disarm is too powerful right now).
As for Time Bomb, I am thinking how to tweak it. If I manage to code I think having it do AOE damage will be enough. Remember that not all skills needs to be measured for damage: there could be some tough enemy (like a Matrick) that has a very high Resiliance so to bring down defense by 1 you'd need to hit like 10 times, but with skills that lower defense you could get same result much quicker.
So there's also this aspect to consider. I think will just add AOE effect but keep the damage as it is, since for example at maximum level reduces defense by 3 and it's going to be a very useful skill IMHO.
jack1974
Jul 01, 2018
Did another update fixing various things today. I think I'm happy how the Time Bomb is now, the AOE is good (very few other skills have AOE damage) and combined with defense damage, I think is now a good skill.
Also, Drunk Shot now "works" properly. It's fun to click on a target and then see randomly hitting someone else
Seems appropriate for Philipp!
grey_duck
Jul 02, 2018
Finally finished moving and had a chance to download the demo (though I haven't played it yet). For some reason the demo can't be downloaded through the itch.io app (or, at least, I couldn't find it).
jack1974
Jul 02, 2018
Ah maybe because I disabled the purchase, not sure. On the page the demo shows up, maybe just a bug
I think once all the prototype bugs are solved I'll focus on finishing the rest of the game (there's still all the isometric map exploration to finish), to have a sort of full demo (like 4-5h of gameplay) and before moving on get feedback on that.
grey_duck
Jul 02, 2018
...aaaaaaaaand it won't launch on my Mac anyway. Phooey.
jack1974
Jul 02, 2018
Haha well, not my fault if Apple went nuts. I expect in a few years I'll stop making the games for mac because of their total "security" madness (in reality just trying to force users and devs to use their horrible Mac appstore).
Anyway check this thread by Troyen:
https://www.winterwolves.net/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=4113
Jaeger
Jul 02, 2018
How is morale supposed to be managed anyways? In most battles, it either remains high or suddenly takes a sharp dive when an enemy decides to dogpile one particular party member, especially against high-damage opponents like hornets. Combine that with deteriorating defense, it can be hole that is difficult to get out of.
Troyen
Jul 02, 2018
Finally finished moving and had a chance to download the demo (though I haven't played it yet). For some reason the demo can't be downloaded through the itch.io app (or, at least, I couldn't find it).
Find the PS2 store page and click the install button (red button on the right). I grabbed mine through the mac itch client.
There's no separate demo entry.
jack1974
Jul 03, 2018
How is morale supposed to be managed anyways? In most battles, it either remains high or suddenly takes a sharp dive when an enemy decides to dogpile one particular party member, especially against high-damage opponents like hornets. Combine that with deteriorating defense, it can be hole that is difficult to get out of.
Currently morale changes the following way:
1) check enemy HP vs party HP. If is bigger, -1 morale (every turn)
2) check the percentage of health of the player: if is >80% increase morale by 1, otherwise decrease it based on %. Like <80% -1, <60% -2, <40% -3 and <20% -4 (every turn)
3) whenever player gets hit, morale lowers based on amount taken
4) if you kill an enemy you get a morale boost of 10+ difference of levels from party member to target. So if you kill an enemy +5 level vs party member you get +15 morale
...and I thought I had a negative boost if a party member gets KOed but I forgot to code that
I could also raise morale based on party damage done for example. I'd like to be something that happens a bit, not too often.
Jaeger
Jul 03, 2018
Currently morale changes the following way:
1) check enemy HP vs party HP. If is bigger, -1 morale (every turn)
2) check the percentage of health of the player: if is >80% increase morale by 1, otherwise decrease it based on %. Like <80% -1, <60% -2, <40% -3 and <20% -4 (every turn)
3) whenever player gets hit, morale lowers based on amount taken
4) if you kill an enemy you get a morale boost of 10+ difference of levels from party member to target. So if you kill an enemy +5 level vs party member you get +15 morale
...and I thought I had a negative boost if a party member gets KOed but I forgot to code that I could also raise morale based on party damage done for example. I'd like to be something that happens a bit, not too often.
Thanks for the explanation. Now I see why morale is difficult to increase but drops quickly. But yes, I do think there could be more ways to raise morale, since the current system heavily skews towards losing it, especially when taking heavy damage. From playing so far, it seems positive morale bonuses never trigger when it remains high, yet I get the penalties quite often once it drops below 50%. Out of curiosity, why did you want a morale system in the first place?
jack1974
Jul 03, 2018
Yes of course it needs to be fine-tuned. For example in my first testing you could get both the <50 morale debuff AND then the <25 one
which was clearly too much.
On next update I will increase morale for player when dealing damage the same way happens for enemies, so you should have more chances to raise it
