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Post by Strife on Jun 4, 2009 10:50:29 GMT -5
Even if just a random NPC says "hey, your stat points, THEY EXIST. USE 'EM." somewhere early in the game, it would help. XD Ohyes, definitely. xD I would prefer a full-blown tutorial that occurs just after her first levelup, but we'll see. Now that all of my testers know how stat points work, I think i'll leave it to Alpha 3. (Or the next patch, if someone encounters another game-stopping bug.) |
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Post by Killix on Jun 4, 2009 22:01:25 GMT -5
 I dunno if this was intentional or not... but you can totally pwn Flesh Eaters if you stand in their "blind spot" which is exactly as shown in the picture. Ikkin can happily slash away at them, and they can't touch her. XD |
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Post by Strife on Jun 5, 2009 16:54:07 GMT -5
I dunno if this was intentional or not... but you can totally pwn Flesh Eaters if you stand in their "blind spot" which is exactly as shown in the picture. Ikkin can happily slash away at them, and they can't touch her. XD I had silently increased Ikkin's attack radius at some point, but left the flesh eaters with the same radius they had before. I could increase their radius to compensate if it feels too much like an exploit, but in any case, Spin Attack should reach them from a safe vertical distance no matter what. x3 That's a nice screenshot, by the way. =D You took it rrrright when it went down! |
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Post by Killix on Jun 9, 2009 13:28:15 GMT -5
It's not much of a glaring exploit, as the area you have to stand in is pretty much one or two precise pixels. XD
Plus, after you get past a certain level, they're really easy to take down normally. (and they don't even give good exp at all. XD)
*bows* Years of practise and screenshot-taking. =D
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Post by Pacmanite on Jun 10, 2009 1:29:52 GMT -5
All righties, I'm totally stuck on this puzzle, and I've been at it for like, hours  Which is quite embarrassing. But the basic premise of the puzzle seems familiar enough. I just can't get it to work for me. Sooo... would any of you peeps be kind enough to provide maybe a link to a solution for a similar puzzle that has the same logic as this one? ^^;; I'm quite stuck and I'm bursting to see what's on the other side of the blocked door. |
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Post by Gelquie on Jun 10, 2009 1:59:13 GMT -5
Yeah, that puzzle took me forever too. I don't remember exactly how I did it, though...
There's a smaller puzzle in another part of the dungeon that's easier to solve. Once I learned how to solve that, doing the bigger puzzle didn't take as long, though there was still some trial and error.
I think leaving the room and coming back will restart the puzzle, unless it's been solved, in case you need to start over.
Although I found the big puzzle before I found the little puzzle, so that confused things at first until I took a break from it and continued looking around.
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Post by Strife on Jun 10, 2009 8:55:50 GMT -5
Mowfy - Ah, I gotcha. xD On a similar note, are there any other monsters that feel like they should give more experience at their level? EXP balancing is really hard to determine by myself - when i'm testing the game, I just set Ikkin to the level that I think she would be at a certain point in the game, which may or may not be accurate.
GLQ - That was an issue I was thinking about, actually. The big puzzle is entirely optional, but players who encounter it before the little puzzle might think they need to solve it in order to continue. xD;
I suck at it too, personally. I only solved it twice by trial and error, and each time took about 20-30 minutes. But it's definitely possible, and well worth the trouble, since the room it opens up contains an item that makes the boss battle easier.
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Post by Omni on Jun 10, 2009 13:02:47 GMT -5
Mowfy - Ah, I gotcha. xD On a similar note, are there any other monsters that feel like they should give more experience at their level? EXP balancing is really hard to determine by myself - when i'm testing the game, I just set Ikkin to the level that I think she would be at a certain point in the game, which may or may not be accurate. Maybe telling you what levels we reach at certain points in the game would help? 'Cause I remember that at the end of the Forbidden Grotto, I was at level 4 (5 once I beat the boss), less than half-way to even needing a soul gem. That was before patch 5. Didn't you say you increased EXP a bit since then? I know I didn't do a lot of training… hardly even qualifies as 'grinding,' but still. |
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Post by Killix on Jun 10, 2009 13:56:16 GMT -5
Mowfy - Ah, I gotcha. xD On a similar note, are there any other monsters that feel like they should give more experience at their level? EXP balancing is really hard to determine by myself - when i'm testing the game, I just set Ikkin to the level that I think she would be at a certain point in the game, which may or may not be accurate. *nod* EXP and level balancing is indeed difficult and usually takes many testers to get right, so I've already been keeping notes. I've been taking my time through the game, and I haven't noticed any glaring imbalances yet. |
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Post by Strife on Jun 11, 2009 12:14:06 GMT -5
4-5 was about the same level that I was when I beat the boss, Omni, so that's good. ^_^ I was about level 7-8 when I killed the second boss.
During my tests, I have noticed that as a general rule of thumb, the player is usually 10 levels below their (new) level cap by the time they get a new soul gem. I've thought about nerfing the starting level cap from 10 to 5 and increasing the total number of soul gems to 9, but figured that I should leave some wiggle room for players who aren't skilled with action games - so if for any reason someone can't beat the first boss at level 5, they can grind their way up to level 8 or 9 and totally waste them. xD
As the game progresses, the player will need to get closer and closer to their level cap in order to have enough power to kill the monsters in their area. As an example, I think the player should be around level 16-17 before they confront the third boss (the level cap at this point being 20).
Mowfy - That's excellent. ^_^ Thank you!
Ore is another resource i'm trying to balance, though I think it's pretty good for the time being, considering that healing items restore a lot of health early on. I could probably place a few more treasure chests around the game world with lots and lots of ore inside of them, though, as an added bonus for explorers. x3
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Post by Pacmanite on Jun 12, 2009 2:52:52 GMT -5
Haha, ore. Actually at the very start of the game, when I first explored around Terris town and paid for my jumping lesson, I was completely broke, barely having enough in pocket to use an inn whenever I wanted to. But then again, that was because I just walked right into the shop and on a whim busted all my gold on flour and eggs xD I was like, "oooh... cooking. Must try it out." So I guess I didn't have very typical spending habits.
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Post by Killix on Jun 12, 2009 3:35:52 GMT -5
I think ore is quite unbalanced at the beginning. Like I mentioned earlier, it takes tons of grinding to be able to restock due to the horrendously low amount of ore that the weak monsters drop.
This would not bode well for less skilled players who can't beat the boss on their first three/ten tries. XD
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Post by Strife on Jun 12, 2009 4:03:24 GMT -5
Noted. x3 I have a few options... Which would be the most beneficial to beginning players without being too easy?
- Making monsters drop ore more frequently
- Making bushes drop more ore and increasing the value of crops
- Replacing the sleeping bag in secret area D2 with a generous amount of ore
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Post by PFA on Jun 12, 2009 11:01:49 GMT -5
I'd say the first, and probably the second as well. XD; But seeing as you spend the majority of the beginning of the game in a dungeon with no bushes/grass, well. The secret area thing wouldn't do that much good to me, 'cause I didn't even find that secret area, nor would every person playing through the game for the first time. (Actually though, I think I found where the entrance was, but at the time I was unaware that bushes took several slashes to mow down, so I thought I needed some kind of upgrade first. *PHAIL*) EDIT: So Omni and I were curious how much slower VPC is compared to VMWare, so we decided to do a bit of a race. We started at a certain point, and timed to see how long it took to get from that point to a given later point. XD And we figured out that from the entrance of the Dyre Woods to the save point just beyond that question-door, it takes: Under VMWare: just under an hour (including a couple of crashes and a pause to restore mana) Under VPC: an hour and 51 minutes (30 minutes of which being a bit of stupidity on my part. >_< Note to self: never refuse to backtrack a bit and save just because you think it won't crash.) So in other words... I'd venture that VPC is about half of normal speed.  Lag FTL. |
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Post by Pacmanite on Jun 13, 2009 1:45:31 GMT -5
 Well, I've been through every door I can see, and I haven't been able to find a way to open this door here. I've found one key for the set of locked doors, but the other I assume is stuck behind this blocked-up doorway. Is there something really obvious I've been missing? ^^ Edit: Oh... all I needed was a cold bomb. Neverminds. xD  |
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Which is quite embarrassing. But the basic premise of the puzzle seems familiar enough. I just can't get it to work for me. Sooo... would any of you peeps be kind enough to provide maybe a link to a solution for a similar puzzle that has the same logic as this one? ^^;; I'm quite stuck and I'm bursting to see what's on the other side of the blocked door.
Lag FTL.