Okie-dokierusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ January 31st, 2025, 03:00Seems there's still a good ways to go, waiting until release would probably be a better idea
We have a Steam curator now. You should be following it. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44994899-RPGHQ/
The Darkness Below
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Tweed
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Adventurer's Guild
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Tweed
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And now that I know that I'm going to voice some more opinion:
This game is schizophrenic. It copies a lot of elements of Might and Magic 6 and puts them into a turn-based version of Eye of The Beholder. Instead of guilds that teach you initial skills you have trainers for every tier (at least, in theory). Skills go up as you use them rather than spending points. They go up even if you don't use them as they seem to go up passively in combat, which is a good thing because if you had try and hit things or cast spells you didn't have, you'd never gain anything. One huge problem I already see with aping MM6's skill system for this game is that so far the entire thing has been linear while MM6/7/8 begin semi-linear and open up as you get stronger. So it's no big deal to return to an area and learn the next tier of proficiency in a skill once you're ready. The world of TDB is not open, you cannot traverse the map as you please, most of it is closed off and some areas require coach rides which cost money, sometimes a lot of money. Granted, this game seems to be early in development, but if this is how the game is going to be set up with no way of faster traveling later on then learning skills will be a nightmare.
One other huge difference between MM and TDB is that some skills require other skills. So if you want to learn long blade you need to be proficient to a certain degree with short blade. If you want to learn plate armor you need to start with leather. This creates a major problem regarding stats. As I mentioned before, non-primary stats for classes either raise very slowly or not at all which means if you're short for learning the basics of learning how to wear leather armor, you can forget all other forms of protection and because skills raise over time that means you're missing out on skillups for all the time you don't have that skill. My paladin only learned short blade late and could never hit anything with them and since long blades require the second tier of proficiency of short blade plus additional stats to learn, he never swung a sword, not that I think the teacher for second level short blades is in yet. I took the paladin because I wanted a second healer, he never learned a single heal spell. Although the two spells he did have turned out to be very handy. An elemental damage booster and a crowd nuke.
Combat is slow and boring which is a kiss of death since that's all you do in these games. It's no fun watching most of your party miss constantly and having to rely endless spells or one party member to hit everything. On the upside half the time the enemy missed me as well so the odd calculations must work against them just as much as they do me.
It looks like the real deal, but it doesn't play like it right now.
This game is schizophrenic. It copies a lot of elements of Might and Magic 6 and puts them into a turn-based version of Eye of The Beholder. Instead of guilds that teach you initial skills you have trainers for every tier (at least, in theory). Skills go up as you use them rather than spending points. They go up even if you don't use them as they seem to go up passively in combat, which is a good thing because if you had try and hit things or cast spells you didn't have, you'd never gain anything. One huge problem I already see with aping MM6's skill system for this game is that so far the entire thing has been linear while MM6/7/8 begin semi-linear and open up as you get stronger. So it's no big deal to return to an area and learn the next tier of proficiency in a skill once you're ready. The world of TDB is not open, you cannot traverse the map as you please, most of it is closed off and some areas require coach rides which cost money, sometimes a lot of money. Granted, this game seems to be early in development, but if this is how the game is going to be set up with no way of faster traveling later on then learning skills will be a nightmare.
One other huge difference between MM and TDB is that some skills require other skills. So if you want to learn long blade you need to be proficient to a certain degree with short blade. If you want to learn plate armor you need to start with leather. This creates a major problem regarding stats. As I mentioned before, non-primary stats for classes either raise very slowly or not at all which means if you're short for learning the basics of learning how to wear leather armor, you can forget all other forms of protection and because skills raise over time that means you're missing out on skillups for all the time you don't have that skill. My paladin only learned short blade late and could never hit anything with them and since long blades require the second tier of proficiency of short blade plus additional stats to learn, he never swung a sword, not that I think the teacher for second level short blades is in yet. I took the paladin because I wanted a second healer, he never learned a single heal spell. Although the two spells he did have turned out to be very handy. An elemental damage booster and a crowd nuke.
Combat is slow and boring which is a kiss of death since that's all you do in these games. It's no fun watching most of your party miss constantly and having to rely endless spells or one party member to hit everything. On the upside half the time the enemy missed me as well so the odd calculations must work against them just as much as they do me.
It looks like the real deal, but it doesn't play like it right now.
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Tweed
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Adventurer's Guild
More shower thoughts:
The way combat is set up right now you can never engage the enemy on your terms. Since movement is turn based inside and outside of combat it's a IGYG system and there's no way as far as I know to skip a turn so you're almost always moving into their line of fire. When combat starts you can't move which means no stepping up and no running away so turns are wasted just punching the air, literally. Enemies automatically attack every turn even if they can't reach you and you're forced to sit through it. This is another reason why combat is unpleasant, you can't accelerate it because you can't move and unless you're armed with ranged weapons or using spells you can't attack from afar. A lot of this is caused by mashing together elements from a real-time DRPG with a turn based one. MM6 is real time with optional turn based for those moments when you get overwhelmed, the thing is that everyone has a ranged weapon. TDB's combat looks like a mixture of WoX and EoB, but you can't actually throw things and the only way to shoot is when you're armed with a bow. If you don't have ranged skill then you're stuck waiting and even if you do there's no guarantee you'll hit anything anyway. This is another reason why combat drags on.
It's a real headscratcher for me trying to shoehorn a lot of elements from real-time blobbers into a turn-based system.
The way combat is set up right now you can never engage the enemy on your terms. Since movement is turn based inside and outside of combat it's a IGYG system and there's no way as far as I know to skip a turn so you're almost always moving into their line of fire. When combat starts you can't move which means no stepping up and no running away so turns are wasted just punching the air, literally. Enemies automatically attack every turn even if they can't reach you and you're forced to sit through it. This is another reason why combat is unpleasant, you can't accelerate it because you can't move and unless you're armed with ranged weapons or using spells you can't attack from afar. A lot of this is caused by mashing together elements from a real-time DRPG with a turn based one. MM6 is real time with optional turn based for those moments when you get overwhelmed, the thing is that everyone has a ranged weapon. TDB's combat looks like a mixture of WoX and EoB, but you can't actually throw things and the only way to shoot is when you're armed with a bow. If you don't have ranged skill then you're stuck waiting and even if you do there's no guarantee you'll hit anything anyway. This is another reason why combat drags on.
It's a real headscratcher for me trying to shoehorn a lot of elements from real-time blobbers into a turn-based system.
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Acrux
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Very big patch released today. No word on whether this will help Tweed git gud.
v1.6 (2025-03-30)
fixed: bug where any damage caused by a monster's action could be avoided if player opened either a character window or settings while the action was animating (thanks @SkittishKavu1)
fixed: bug where the local map couldn't open by clicking the 'Local Map' action key shortcut (by default, 'M'), if you were holding an item or a spell was highlighted / view description
fixed: bug where a town door couldn't show its label instantly, when a game was loaded while facing that door, one had to slightly move the mouse to show the label
fixed: bug where clicking 'reroll' on 'character creation' on 'Skills' page, was causing a crash if there were three (3) skills added (thanks @Asperger Berzerker)
fixed: bug where starting a new game didn't working normally if it was followed after a loaded game, ending up triggering wrong events etc. The issue is that a few details of previous loaded game were making it into the new game instead of starting anew (thanks @elenda*******)
fixed: bug where some map names couldn't work well with save system, mostly the ones having a comma. Updated the save system so this wont be a concern anymore and also added additional code to silently convert previous saves to updated format, although minor issues might still persist
fixed: bug where some wall columns weren't shown on a stairs leading down
fixed: bug where world map was not showing the visited maps correctly, under certain conditions
fixed: bug where a banner with an event attached to it, would keep showing its event on click and mouse hovering, even if the banner was hidden by another event
fixed: bug where items where created with enchantments not allowed for these item types (i.e. 'fire damage' enchantment for gauntlets is not allowed, as per '14.2.2. Named enchantments'). This led to buggy damage calculations. Now, enchanted items created are only using their allowed enchantments. Finally, items in loaded games (created from previous game versions) are checked and deleted if they have non-allowed enchantments (thanks @SkittishKavu1)
fixed: bug where a few map names were breaching the save/load slot available space, on 'Settings -> Save / Load Game' tab. Now, these map names are properly wrapped in next line
fixed: bug where the soundtrack on NPC storytellers events was not repeating
added: abilities are increasing differently between a race (like 'dwarf') and a subrace (like 'stone dwarf'). In short, the changes added to make main races more useful and not being just a subset of their more specialized subraces. Read more in '4.3. Abilities increase per level' (thanks @Acrux (rpghq))
added: feats in character page 'Feats' requiring a profession (i.e. 'Last Stand' requires a knight profession), are filtered by that profession, not showing in characters of another profession, while also showing with a special 'brown' exclamation, instead of usual 'blue' exclamation for regular non-profession restricted feats. This makes it easy to know which feats 'belong' to what character (thanks @Acrux (rpghq))
added: a new minimap object called 'Banner', showing up the text banners in a dungeon. This is useful as many events rely to hints coming from banners. In addition, minimap objects 'Town' and 'Tower' were merged to one single tile, namely 'Map'
added: new feats, 'Sorcerous Revival' (for wizards), 'Beacon of Resilience' (for paladins), 'Sharpshooter' (for rangers)
added: a 'shrine of soul' in 'Drakenmoor Flatlands', just outside of 'Withered Keep, Courtyard', to help a bit against the soul attacks
added: new maps 'Withered Keep, Level 1', 'Withered Keep, Level 2' (can be found in new content)
added: new monsters 'Brimstone Demon', 'Redhorn Demon', 'Hellfire Devil', 'Cactus', 'Needle Cactus' (can be found in new content)
added: where there's no-lighting (i.e. through torch, spell or item enchantment), the party orientation isn't shown as well, either in minimap/map (instead of a party direction, a question mark is shown) or in compass ('???' are shown), which will add a little more difficulty on dungeon exploration
added: the concept of magical darkness and also inability for the party to add lighting is now introduced to special dungeons (can be found on new content), adding more difficulty and variation
added: technique-based weapons (i.e. daggers, short swords) are now using 'technique' to compute their damage as well; this will help professions such as thieves/rangers to deal more damage with their smaller weapons (since they end up with higher technique). Read more in '10.4.2. Damage by Melee weapons'. (thanks @Hallowed Vulpine, @shafkhan2001)
added: updated the 'strong abilities' for clerics and wizards, now having 'intelligence' and 'technique' instead. This is to help as well these professions to land more hits with their smaller weapons, when they can rely on their spells no more.
added: default resolution is now set to 'letterbox' (with best / highest resolution) when the game launches for first time. This guarantees that the game will cover most of the desktop window, while respecting the aspect ratio. Previously, it was set to 'fullscreen' which caused distortions / stretching in multiple setups (thanks @Jimbly)
added: replaced the soundtrack used on companion NPCs and also on story tellers NPCs with a more matching one, should blend nicely with any map soundtrack (thanks @Her Serenity)
added: a checkbox option to disable 'NPC voices' in settings. By default this is enabled. When disabled, no NPC voices will be heard when entering shops, talking to NPC hirelings etc. Not only that but the delay to start the actual soundtrack will be also reset, meaning the soundtrack will start playing immediately if the option is disabled (thanks @Her Serenity)
added: a new tower prop in world map, to be used in dungeons like towers, keeps, castles etc.
added: new town 'Sunglade', with a desert theme that can be travelled through 'Crimson Bay'. This town includes a lot of the missing skill trainers, with a few remaining still for next village/town (can be found in new content)
added: new overworld map 'Goldenfields', a vast desert north of amphill's monastery, accessed through new town 'Sunglade'
added: travelling cost through a stable is now reduced about 40% as it was pretty high (travelling from crimson bay to amphill was costing 400g, now it costs 160g). This will make frequent travelling / revisits a lot more affordable as the game is based on this pattern
added: new terrain type 'sand', along with a few matching plants, used in full desert maps (can be found in new content)
added: new sprites for holes / pits, opening up the way for more puzzles (can be found in new content)
added: the location of the next expertise skill trainer is now shown in skill trainer text, at the end of it i.e. 'Next trainer at xxx'. This way you'll know where you have to go to advance on a skill. If there's no such information, then no next expertise skill trainer has developed yet, as the game searches internally to bring that information (thanks @elenda*******)
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Tweed
- Turtle
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- Joined: Feb 2, '23
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Geolocation
Adventurer's Guild
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Tweed
- Turtle
- Posts: 6996
- Joined: Feb 2, '23
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Geolocation
Adventurer's Guild
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Acrux
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- Posts: 6747
- Joined: Feb 8, '23
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Adventurer's Guild
This has officially left Early Access. I haven't played for a while, so I don't know what's been updated (he does have a change log). He does say he has more updates planned, but I've noticed it takes him a while to finish things even when he sets a date.