Dungeons of Chaos REVAMPED ED. Volker Elzner Dungeons of Chaos is a retro-style 2D RPG that takes you on an epic journey with numerous spells, skills and tactical co… $5.99 Buy Now Watch Media DetailsDungeons of Chaos is a retro-style 2D RPG that takes you on an epic journey with numerous spells, skills and tactical combat to employ in order to win the battle against evil. Huge locations to explore (both unique and randomised). Totally ad-free. >20000 sold so far for both major OS together, and 4.8 star rating and a very engaged fanbase on our facebook page, where I discuss frequent updates and additions. Favourite fan quote to date (Kristian Borcheck): "If you were a fan of Ultima 3,4,5 or games of that ilk then this game will feel like coming home" See overwhelming iOS reviews here: https://sensortower.com/ios/us/volker-elzner/app/dungeons-of-chaos-unity-edition/1052556488/#review-history Quotes: "An Old-School-RPG with great character development, rewarding exploration, turn-based combat and well designed dungeons and quests. Retro-Fun!" - RPGWatch "Deeply immersive and a whole lot of fun, Dungeons of Chaos belongs on the iPad of any self-respecting 1980s role-playing fan." - iRumorsnow "If Avernum and Ultima 4ish had a genius baby, this would be it." - Aldinach "The little guy who made this game made a gem. [...] It's very fun and deep. Creating characters is the bomb. It's great!" -- anabolicMike FEATURES: - retro-style RolePlayingGame (RPG) in the spirit of old classics - vast locations to explore in a top-down 2D tile-based view - many different character classes, spells and skills to employ. Guilds can give access to advanced classes - rewarding quests to fulfil - atmospheric music, and detailed lighting and line-of-sight visual mechanics - non-linear content and exploration: many locations exist outside the main storyline, with unique monsters and treasure and secrets - some locations are fully randomised and different each time you play (procedural content generation). Some are randomised and re-settable. And there are over 30 fixed locations supporting the main storyline. - many rare item properties make for over 5,000,000 combinations that let your armour, weapons and accessories take on powerful bonuses - defeat many different monsters with unique abilities and challenges. level up your characters and upgrade their abilities. - find important NPCs to expand your skill sets, find magic books to boost your spell knowledge and improve your equipment by trading your bounty with various shop owners - intricate fight mechanics: flanking or being flanked makes an encounter change from being easy to being dangerous, and vice versa; using the right boost/support/attack spells and skills will prove vital for survival - control a party of 6 characters, which you can generate using 9 starter classes and unique character features - try out different classes, experience different randomised locations, find different equipment, for great replay value - various difficulty levels. Higher difficulty yields better loot but also much tougher enemies and game mechanics DETAILED GAME MECHANICS, TACTICS and HINTS are available at the support website https://dungeonsofchaos.wordpress.com. Some gameplay videos: https://youtu.be/NXEK7R5hB5c?list=PLMAEZZoVxsGLS_YtEEWFYxPL93heVaqOq https://youtu.be/RF45sJk_l2M?list=PLMAEZZoVxsGLS_YtEEWFYxPL93heVaqOq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9FwaFWGuM8&list=PLMAEZZoVxsGLS_YtEEWFYxPL93heVaqOq https://youtu.be/3_dmEljHZBk https://youtu.be/VNnqWR1WLfs https://youtu.be/0BpgIv8fXeA DEVICE SUPPORT: Dungeons of Chaos is designed to work on as many devices as possible and back to iOS6. Issues DO arise on very old devices with low memory (RAM of 256MB or less), such as iPad2 or iPad Mini or iPhone 4S and 5C if the latter run iOS 8 or 9. The game works fine on iPhone 5S,6,6S,6Plus and on newer iPads like iPadAir 1 or 2, or iPad3. For any problems or suggestions we would love to hear from you at: [email protected] . Information Seller:Volker Elzner Genre:Adventure, Role Playing Release:Jun 03, 2016 Updated:Aug 18, 2021 Version:2.9.211 Size:145.7 MB TouchArcade Rating:Unrated User Rating: (17) Your Rating:unrated Compatibility:HD Universal After 18 months of re-designing, DUNGEONS OF CHAOS is now a cross-platform, phone and tablet port. With many improvements made to UI and engine as well. Android release was Wed 1 June, over 500 installs and not a single crash yet. iOS released on Saturday 4th June. This is a retro RPG, 2D turn-based, 6 player party, arena combat, many locations and side quests, also some randomised locations. Class system, spells and skills, many different item combinations. Just everything I loved about the RPGs of old. Please also see the fanbase feedback to date on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos And for more background on the history, how-to-play etc, the wordpress blog: https://dungeonsofchaos.wordpress.com/ Gameplay video (unfortunately no sound): https://youtu.be/mtdO0Pnz4RI ZS77 Well-Known Member May 8, 2015 566 2 18 #2 ZS77, Jun 7, 2016 As promised - repost from original (pre-Unity) release: So, I passed this up when it first released thinking it was 'too rough' around the edges at that point. I had meant to follow its progress but it slipped off my radar. I have just now read all 15 pages of comments on here, checked the website and the new App Store page and I can safely say I'm really glad I didn't buy in to this from the start..... .....because now I get it in full Unity glory AND on my iPhone too! Whoop, whoop! # What can I say - I'm sold. I'm only sorry to the dev I didn't have enough faith to support it from the outset. I will happily leave TA and App Store feedback once I've had a chance to get to grips with it - to be honest though, it will be positive no matter how I feel about the game as Volkers dedication must be applauded alone. From early on, you admitted this isn't making a fortune and that it's a labour of love - and despite the relatively low sales you reported, you've not only continued to expand it but also completely port it to Unity and shrink it to handheld size. Amazing. Well done that man! This reminds me of the dedication that Sami Sierla lavished on 'Cavern' - again, very retro aesthetics but a hugely compelling game underneath. And still being supported and developed 6 years later.....the bar has been set Volker! # Can't wait to sink my teeth in to this later tonight. VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #3 VolkerE, Jun 7, 2016 Last edited: Jun 7, 2016 some help with key game mechanics This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about some of the mechanics of the game, but skills and spells and classes will probably be a separate post. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. The non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. OPTIONS I have included several pages of options in the game, you can change how the controls appear, how fast things are, how the fight behaves, fight message popups, daylight cycle, dungeon run auto-walk feature, fight positioning etc. etc. Try out what best works for you. My personal tip for the real retro experience is to have the walking speed not set too fast. You may want to speed it up as you traverse large maps, but in an NPC location or atmospheric setting, walking speed leaning toward the min setting gives a nice feel. The difficulty setting is also very important. If you are well versed in RPGs of old, set it to higher than normal. It changes many things from monster count, damage and armour, chance of events, etc. Loot is slightly rarer under higher settings. AUTO FIGHT MODE Now this is something I designed from scratch based on my own experience that low level monster fights can otherwise be too tedious. In essence: - You can decide for each player individually whether they follow an auto-tactic or whether you control them manually. You can set that at start of the fight or change any time into the fight. - You can set several auto parameters, like whether the player should use attack spells, or whether they should stop using attack spells once they are down to X% of full mana, so they can continue to cast heal + healing aura. Note: only basic attacks spells are used. AUTO will not use all your mana in the first turn to cast METEOR on a rat. - You can set parameters by which the auto turns itself off, like own health % or anyones health %. - Practical use #1: if you are fighting low level monsters: all on auto and see how you go. Note: you can also set the auto fight speed in the options menu. - Practical use #2: you are fighting monsters that should be ok, but they land some lucky blows and now you are in trouble (ghost and spectres). Turn the auto OFF for your cleric, and use holy chant which is a daily power skill and weakens and hurts them. Auto mode will NEVER use daily power skills itself. Auto can use cooldown skills though if you tell it to (e.g. basic defense buffs or the sprint skill). So in this case you use full auto and by-exception you switch a player on manual to pop a daily. - Practical use #3: you have a highly specialised team, and your ranger shoots and your berserker melees. But for your druid, you want to cast a flurry of area effect spells just at the right time, mixed with armor and resistance boosts to your front line players. In that case I leave the druid on manual all the time, which means the fight runs on auto but pauses every time it is the druids turn. This feels like you are steering the fight. Side-note: you can 'mark' a target which is a button at the top right with a red crosshair. Any player on auto mode that has a choice of several targets in range, will aim for that target. This way if you fight a medium-level boss with lots of minions and you want your knight and archer to ignore the minions (all hail for the knights protected hellforged warplate of vigor which makes him a formidable tank), set the target to the boss. SCREEN SIZE Ever since I released the iPAD version in December 2014 I have been begged to make an iPhone (and Android) port. I said at the time that a tile-based game that features exploration and tactical combat arenas are tricky given how small phones can be. I have done the following to make it as feasible as possible: - There is a magnifying glass in the main map view. You can walk around entirely in zoomed-in mode which gives a nice visual appeal even on a phone as small as an iPhone5C, which has been my main testing device for this purpose. You can obviously see less in that zoomed view, but I made sure that is not a disadvantage by leaving the auto-map to keep tracking the expanded view, and by making sure if I do place secret stuff somewhere that you walk past it at a distance that works in close view. But in general if you want to find all my Easter eggs you ned to search everywhere anyway. - I have replaced awkward text-based buttons in the map view with icons. - The directional buttons are fully scalable in the options menu, so you can see what works best for you. - I have completely redesigned EVERY (!) screen, canvas, user interface and button. The game is in fact a complete re-built due to it being in Unity so it felt natural to remodel everything with a phone screen in mind. Which is why it took until now to get the game done. - I have weighed off different pros and cons and arrived at the layouts you see today. If you have feedback, please be mindful that it may not apply to everyone and I would be reluctant to change the UI because it is hard to check who is happy vs. who is not. I dont want to break something that works for most people. Ratings so far indicate that people are doing ok (or havent seen the magnifying button yet). VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #4 VolkerE, Jun 7, 2016 Last edited: Jun 7, 2016 some help with FIGHTS This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about fight mechanics and player/mob conditions. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. Any non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. Please be mindful that fight mechanics are a choice. I chose these, you may have chosen or preferred it slightly differently. If you have suggestions, message me, I will consider them, but most likely will not make radical design changes to these. FLANKING Flanking matters for accuracy and evasion. If your fighter is next to an orc, a 2nd player attacking him will benefit from the orcs reduced ability to move or see the attack coming. So this is true for ranged and melee attackers. Same happens to players. Flanking benefit is enhanced if the attacker is good in the no escape skill. Rogues, assassins. Flanking impact to the attacker is reduced if the attacker has the nimble skill. Monks etc. RANGED ACCURACY Ranged attacks that use the full range of the weapon have the accuracy reduced. One third or half range usually stops giving penalties. ARMOR CLASS AND PHYSICAL DAMAGE Physical armor works as follows: first, for every 100 points of armor the damage gets halved. Then, for every 10 points of armor the remaining damage gets reduced by 1. This is calculated for each of the 3 physical damage types separately (slice, pierce, force) then added up. Example 1: a rat has an attack that rolls a pre-armor pierce damage of 10. It hits your player who has 50 points of armor vs piercing (pretty good for an early party). First, the 10 reduces by about 25% (0.5 to the potency of 0.5), so 8 points left. Then 5 points reduced. so he takes 3 points of damage. Example 2: a dragon charges your level 40 knight. raw damage is 300 force damage. He has 200 armor vs force damage which is amazing (armor vs force is the toughest to accumulate). This means the damage is halved twice, to 75. then reduced by 20. So he takes 55 damage. Example 3: a dragon charges your level 40 priest. he is dead. RESISTANCES Resistances stack like layers: if you have two rings that grant 50% fire resistance each, then your fire resistance from items is 75%. (the exposure to fire is 100% and then halved by each ring, to leave exposure of 25%). For fire, lightning, magic and life-draining, resistance reduces the damage received from that type of attack. For cold, damage reduction applies but also the COLD condition is not as strong, which slows you and is explained in more detail later. For poison, the initial and ongoing damage is reduced, which effectively shortens the duration as well. For paralysis and critical hits resistance, the % determines the chance that you do not suffer the impact that is otherwise coming your way. CONDITIONS: Every monster and player can in theory be under the following conditions, several at the same time possibly: BLEEDING, POISONED, PARALYSED, STUNNED, ASLEEP, FROZEN. They all have little symbols in any of the four corners of his tile to show it. Just covering one of the more complex ones today: BLEEDING. Some monsters cant bleed, and in the LOG view (top right button in map view), you will learn who they are. In general: elemental earth/stone creatures, skeletal or ghostly creatures cant. Once you bleed, you need to use magic or a similar healing power to get rid of it. Else your bleed counter will cause you damage every few ticks. You dont see ticks in fight mode but that is how time works in the background. A movement for a beginner player usually takes 80 ticks. You usually bleed about every 20 ticks. For some monsters, their massive health and regenerative abilities means that just having a tank that sustains all the damage and someone slowly stacking bleed-inducing attacks can work to take him down. Spoiler Note on BLEED TRIGGER: for your normal attacks, you can see the attack stats in party view mode, it will say chance to cause bleeding with a %. If you hit with your attack, a roll is made between 0..100 and if it is below that %, you caused bleeding. Bleeding added is 1 for every 25 points of damage, but a minimum of 1. Example: your assassin uses a obsidian ceremonial knife of cutting. This is an item with high cause bleeding chance plus obsidian gives another 25-40% plus of cutting adds more. So you probably have a 90%. The knife does not do a lot of damage, probably only resulting in 2 to be added to a bleed counter of the target on hit, but because the assassin is quick and using a very small (=quick) weapon, the result is that he is making a swiss cheese out of the enemy ogre. Even if he has to retreat and recover once in a while with the ogre chasing after him, the bleeding never stops and he is slowly winning. Most spells or healing skills will heal some bleeding, higher skill/spell levels would be more effective. Some monsters like trolls have natural healing abilities that not only recover health quickly but also heal wounds. So the before mentioned breaking-bad-toothbrush-in-prison assassin build is no good here. VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #5 VolkerE, Jun 7, 2016 Last edited: Jun 8, 2016 some help with how SKILLS work Main philosophy for this SKILL discussion: I won't give away precise numbers, just some flavour. Black = SPOILER (hover over to see text). SKILLS WEAPON SKILLS. Each relates to a weapon type, including unarmed if you wield none. Increasing a weapon skill gives additional accuracy for every single point, but only when you are hitting, this impact is NOT showing in the stats screen because the stats screen shows just intrinsic abilities and equipment modifiers. In addition, every item has a set of weapon attack styles that you can use, and has a different threshold for the weapon skill from when it becomes available. Example: there is a 2h axe which allows you to use a SPIN attack after you reach a 2h axe skill level of about 70 from memory. SPIN hits ALL adjacent enemies around the attacker. Cool, eh? But another 2h axe may NOT have this attack style, but instead have others. Unarmed has a set of styles similar to weapons, with ‘final touch’ being the most powerful one. Attack styles grant bonus and penalties to things like speed, accuracy, damage, stun, bleed, crib hit%. You need to check you are changing your attack style after you increase your skill, it does not go automatic. IDENTIFY: increases chance of an item in treasure or fight loot being identified. You generally fail if a condition, suffix or prefix is new. Apart from the skill level, it also helps if you have already found many of the same type. PERCEPTION: determines many things: if you spot a secret passage when you walk past, if you spot a secret passage when you specifically SEARCH the right spot (low skill and you may still not see it even if you stare at it!), whether you notice monsters approaching while you rest. This a grouped skill. SNEAKING: even when you enter the range by which a monster group can notice you, this grouped skill gives you a chance to continue without being spotted. RAGE: low duration, fairly powerful attack buff. A daily skill. The speed and accuracy are slightly higher, and the damage is significantly higher. Evasion is far worse though. So this is used when you need to make it count. Invoking rage takes a small amount of time. This is a ‘levelled skill’ whereby once you hit a proficiency level of 10,20,30 etc. you see it labels as a new level, and it will be available more often per day, and be more powerful. DETERMINATION: daily skill that simply speaking makes sure you make the next attack count. You get a significant bonus to accuracy and a slight bonus to crit hit%. It takes NO time, so in effect you just declare an attack a special attack by invoking this, no loss of time, no friend or foe is acting before you use it. Also a levelled skill. SHADOW SHIFT: allows you to teleport into the shadow of a creature, friend or foe, that is a few tiles away. Takes a small amount of time. Spoiler Best used to create quick flanking benefits or to make sure the boss enemy is not teleporting too far away and recovering. Daily skill, levelled skill. ENDURE ELEMENTS: permanent increase in basic resistances. fully passive, and impact visible in RESIST view instantly. TAUNT: reduces all enemies’ accuracy and physical armor by distracting them. It is a fine art, think ‘Men in Black distracting the boss cockroach’. Impact is small though, but cheap. Daily skill, levelled skill. Well-timed, it is an easy benefit. Using this while you are already in range to hit and be hit? probably a bad idea, spend your turn hitting them hard. DIVINE FAVOUR: not yet fully implemented in the game, at present this grants a powerful healing to all players. EXORCISE - a daily skill which a cleric or priest can get some rudimentary proficiency in (and rarely, monks have been seen having this skill from 'birth'), but higher levels are restricted to the exorcist class. It is a ritual that REALLY hurts an undead creature. At lower levels the range is 2 tiles, so you don’t need to get as close to the monster as your fighters get. Spoiler At higher levels, this is even a bit more than 2. The damage is massive compared to anything else you would have at your disposal early on, and there is no protection that would really help the target. Against enemies that otherwise try to shelter themselves from damage (casting resistances, or be naturally immune to physical attacks etc), this can be an instant kill. REPULSION - a daily skill that is really useful against swarming smaller creatures. Imagine you are letting the mobs get particularly close for a second, only to burst out and hurt them with force damage, and potentially push them tile away (if there is no space, additional damage is dealt), and potentially stun them. All three effects are stronger based on skill level and user’s strength. You will not do much to a big boss monster, but if he is troubling you with minions, they will disappear from around you for a small while and take damage and/or be stunned. Also nice to look at. HARDEN UP - a basic cooldown skill, where a fighter for example braces himself for taking damage. Impact is a % bonus to armor class (15% at lowest level, more with higher levels). At higher levels, you also get resistances against elements (and even magic at level 5+, and poison at level 7+). This is one of the skills that are used automatically once recharged if you select the “use defensive buff skills” auto option for a player. This works even if the skill is not one of your quick action buttons. DARK CHANNELING - well, this skill only comes into play in the 2nd half of the game and I don’t want to explain these in too much detail. Essentially, you give up health for mana. Spoiler Somehow the weaker you are already and the weaker you make yourself in the process, the more mana you get. Rumour has it, if you are on the brink of death, it costs no further health and gives you FULL mana. SPRINT - this is a cooldown skill that is also used by auto mode, if you activate it and make a move action, the move is much faster. if you activate it and do an action that is not a move, than it has no effect. You can use it to reach ranged attackers faster to take them out, or assume a flanking position quickly. or to make sure you stay ahead of a chasing enemy while your ranged attackers weaken him. Higher skill level means faster sprint, and shorter cooldown required. NO ESCAPE - a passive skill that increases the benefit YOU get from flanking an enemy. You know how to direct a blow so that your target has lesser change of evasion. NIMBLE - a passive skill that lowers the impact that flanking benefits have when you are attacked. HOLY CHANT - a daily skill that grants small bonuses to accuracy, evasion and crate hit chance (so always useful), and a SIGNIFICANT boost to “vs. undead” damage modifier. You can essentially save the day if you have melee fighters that do not ave vs. undead bonuses, and they are facing spectres or ghosts which are immune to physical damage. Once triggered, they are all getting a significant bonus, which turns their 0% damage into at least 200% damage. undead creatures that are immune to physical attacks normally have low health so you will cut them down very quickly. Spoiler Note: several players using holy chant has a compounding effect. But the same person cannot invoke a second chant while the first is still having an effect. SHIELD BASH - a cooldown skill that is also used by auto mode. You effectively add more force damage and stun chance to your melee attack. Higher skill means more impact and shorter cooldown. SHOULDER BASH - similar to shield bash, but weaker. If you have both, you will effectively be using your entire body to pummel your opponents in whatever way you can. HEALING HANDS - daily skill. heal an adjacent player. the healing impact is stronger the weaker the player is. So very effective if you are in trouble and have made sure you are close to your fighters. MAGIC LORE - if you want to not just increase your spell proficiency by using a spell, but want to increase proficiency fast by using talent points, then magic lore has too impacts: first it is your natural MAX level because at higher spell proficiency, it is harder to know what you can improve. Spell books help with the amount of increase gained per TP, but cannot raise the MAX. Magic lore also helps increasing the gain per TP. LOCK PICKING - ability to open locked chests or doors. The player with the highest score is what matters most, with a small impact from what skill other players have. MANA FUNNEL - you use your arcane powers to direct the flow of mana in a way that it hurts a target. None of your own mana is used, so it has no cost. The damage is small, but can make a difference if you are out of mana. Spoiler Also, legend has it that have studied this art to such an extent that they can rival people using the more common attack spells. At no cost… MONSTER LORE - the party’s total score in monster lore, as well as the distance to an enemy, are compared to the difficulty in reading a monster’s health. The outcome determines at what distance, if at all, you can tell the health of a monster. this shows in combat. Some monsters are very difficult to read as they are not your normal living being. TANK STANCE - a bit similar to HARDEN UP, but more powerful. So powerful in fact that it also has a downside: it reduces accuracy and speed. But the armor boost and evasion is probably worth it. BERSERKER’S WILL - ability to ignore/withstand a STUN impact inflicted by your opponents. May not seemlier a big deal until you start to fight stone golems, minotaurs or dragons … POISON BOOST - an assassin’s common daily skill. he has some poison ready and can spend some time out of combat to apply it to his weapon. The poison is very strong, and will crystalise/neutralise after a few turns. But in that time, it can prove very deadly. VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #6 VolkerE, Jun 7, 2016 Last edited: Jun 9, 2016 some help with how SPELLS work This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about SPELLS and what you can achieve with them. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. Any non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. Quick summary of SPELLS: RESIST EVIL / FIRE / COLD / POISON / MAGIC / LIGHTNING These spells will boost the resistance that the target character has, for a period of time. Extent and duration increase with spell level. Resist evil works against the life draining damage you will face when fighting ghosts, spectres, lich, banshees, wights etc. The effect is smaller if you are on a higher difficulty setting, which by the way is normally a small factor in every skill and spell. Spoiler Several same spells on the same target will stack, like layers. So similar to equipment: if a target has two spell buffs active that grant him 50% fire resistance each and his intrinsic resistance is zero, then his fire resistance is 75% because his exposure of 100% gets halved twice. AC BOOST Also sometimes called resist physical is a similar buff, but adds armor class points to a target. at low level it starts with about ~50 points to each of the 3 types of damage, which is about a 25% damage reduction. FROST BALL Area effect spell, inflicts cold damage and freezes several target. Radius and effect increases with spell level, but radius general smaller than ball of lightning or fire ball. The effect is so cool it even leaves visual effects on the battlefield. POISON DART The spell caster (mostly druids) picks up anything small and sharp from the ground, magically alters its surface to create a toxic slime, and projects it at the target. Due to the rudimentary projectile, the range is very limited. But effect can be simple and deadly Spoiler , in particular if stacked several times . Range improves slightly at higher levels. UNLOCK Map view spell to manipulate a lock so it is easier to open. This still benefits / relies upon your lock picking skill, but at very high levels any non-rogue can open locks with such heavy magical assistance. MAGIC MISSILE The most basic and common magical attack. Unlimited range, guided (always hits), but not a lot of damage to a bulky opponent. But very effective against entities that are vulnerable to magic, for example those that are fairly invulnerable to physical attacks. Though not their preference, even druids and clerics can learn to use magic missiles. LIGHTNING STRIKE One of the favourites of the druids, he will manipulate the natural forces around the target (the floor, air or water) to have it hit by a lightning charge. The damage is nominally lower than that of a magic missile, however resistance lightning is rarer, and lightning strike has a chance to paralyse the target as well, in particular at higher levels. LIGHT Map view spell to allow you to see further than your always-on torches would do. Higher levels mean better radius as well as duration. HEAL Without distance limitations, a cleric or priest, but also druids or monks, can use their magical powers to heal a target. Higher levels make such much more effective. Spoiler Rumour has it that some also use this for darker means, but it would surely come at a price to try such foolishness. HOTSPOT A no-nonsense spell that increases the temperature around a target, and setting the air on fire for a short period of time. But no ongoing damage. No range restriction. FIRE BALL A classic, enjoyable projectile that explodes into flames on impact. Higher levels mean longer range, wider explosion radius and more damage. You also leave your mark on the battlefield just to show who is boss. HASTE Increases the targets speed. If you really think there is a single player that carries the fate of the fight, then why not make him more efficient by boosting his speed and make him do everything faster and more often. Quite expensive and short duration though. But can be vital if time is of the essence. WIZARDS EYE A map view spell that enhances your perception, allowing you to spot secret passages and treasure much better. IGNITE A spell whereby you direct energy at all foes until they erupt into a prolonged fire, dealing ongoing fire damage. This can be stacked. Excellent for minion control (read: auto-kill). HOLY SMITE You use your mana to charge up a mighty holy blow on your next turn. If you do not attack right after, it fades. It creates a huge bonus vs. undead, and some bonus to accuracy. A mighty tool in the hands of an exorcist but also any monk that wants to get his hands dirty. Clerics and priests are not very good (but not hopeless) at this. HOLY PLASMA Instead of trying to make your weapon/self more damaging to an undead being, you focus on blessing any substance you can get your hands on and attach it to the target. This provides ongoing damage and debuffs the target as well, and duration is not short either. Spoiler Good to move in, slap it on, and move back into safe distance. This also stacks. MYSTERY 32 If you see this you have played the pre-1.0.30 versions of the game. Please ignore and overwrite the quick action slot with any of your other skills or spells. 8-p MAGIC RUPTURE Some think this is similar to IGNITE, however a very different concept is at play: instead of focussing on the foes to trigger a reaction and get on with life, the caster triggers a general rupture of the fabric of mana flows, causing magic damage exposure to everyone. But he separately prepares a magical shield for the party members, so that they are not affected. The damage from magic rupture is significant and has a long duration, however the spell caster is busy the entire duration with shielding the party members. Spoiler Best crowd control EVER. BALL OF LIGHTNING You create a powerful electric charge similar to a lightning strike, but stronger and more concentrated. At the spot you choose, it then discharges and hits many foes in a considerable radius. Can paralyse. Radius increases with proficiency, but impact reduces with distance from centre. METEOR Single target. The rest should be obvious. If you cant defeat them the ordinary way, crush them under a piece of astronomical debris. Period. If the force damage wont kill them, they should be stunned for a bit. Spoiler If not, RUN. HEALNG AURA More than just your ordinary HEAL spell, this will heal all party members, however the effect is distributed in a wave with its benefit shrinking quickly with each tile, so players farther away get much less benefit. Close by, this heals more than the single spell does. The effort is so immense though that the caster is left dizzy, impacting evasion, speed etc. RESURRECT Does what it says on the tin. But is time-consuming so cannot be performed in combat. Any form of resurrection (!) incurs an XP penalty to the target, but professional help incurs the least. Higher levels mean less penalty. DISGUISE Lowers the chance of being detected by roaming monsters even when you are within their range of perception. Once they noticed you, the spell has no impact anymore and they will do the usual chasing if they feel like it. mmohunt Active Member May 19, 2016 35 0 0 Engineer Berlin Friedenau #7 mmohunt, Jun 7, 2016 Too many text to read lol PBSNellie Well-Known Member Jul 7, 2013 1,381 168 63 Southern CA #8 PBSNellie, Jun 7, 2016 As I said in the other thread, I could never get into the first iteration of this game. But with the update/grade, I took the chance and am very pleased with the result. I spent some time last night playing it and can say that this is going to take up a lot of my time. One of the biggest complaints I had was that the instructions were too complicated and the visuals too small. This, to me, has been resolved in this new version. In fact, I didn't have to resort to the instructions much at all. The play is much more intuitive to me and the magnifier really helps me see what I'm doing. Thank you for sticking with this game and making it much better. ZS77 Well-Known Member May 8, 2015 566 2 18 #9 ZS77, Jun 7, 2016 Now that's how you pre-empt the inevitable questions surrounding a game (re)release! Wow, that's a lot of help and advice to read through, thanks Volker. walmartpolice Well-Known Member May 12, 2012 162 0 0 #10 walmartpolice, Jun 7, 2016 I sincerely hope this does well. I enjoyed the first release very much and plan on getting this. Repulsa Well-Known Member Jul 3, 2015 1,584 81 48 #11 Repulsa, Jun 7, 2016 Hi getting ready to download but just curious if this is roguelike ( game over upon death) or re start from where you died etc looks great I don't know how I ever missed the first version of this cause it's my favorite type of game VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #12 VolkerE, Jun 7, 2016 If one player dies, you need to find a cleric to revive or have a proper priest with you. If everyone dies, you get teleported to the archmage and revived. All of this incurs some XP penalty. No perma death. But I love roguelikes and will do a spin-off of this game in a roguelike setting in the years to come. But some location are randomised and use my own room and corridor placing routines, so a bit like Angband or Rogue. But without the massive vaults... Ubisububi Well-Known Member Oct 8, 2009 1,088 9 38 California #13 Ubisububi, Jun 8, 2016 I bought the first one and I'm happy to buy it again, considering all the love and polish that has gone into it. tjb Well-Known Member Aug 1, 2012 133 2 18 #14 tjb, Jun 8, 2016 Last edited: Jun 8, 2016 Enjoying so far. Anyone know where I can find a priest early on? Never mind, figured it out. The priest who does Heal All also resurrects simultaneously. vader-bg2 Member Jun 8, 2016 6 0 0 #15 vader-bg2, Jun 8, 2016 Volker: - Any chance that you'll improve the auto combat behavior of the party? Taunt is not used despite being a cooldown ability. Casters just stand idly when they run low on mana. They could use their ranged weapons (Druid) or mana funnel (Mage). - Your Exorcise description here says it's useable by monks. My monk has a maximum skill of 0 for Exorcise. Is that a bug or did you change it for balance reasons after writing the text. I also got two more general question: - Can someone tell me how (and why) to use a ranger? Archers are better in ranged combat, fighter and barbarians in melee. They don't excel in any useful skill and don't have spells (I realize that might change with upgraded classes but I'm judging the base class here). - What to do with a cleric? If there's nothing to heal/buff, he's useless. Monk or druid seem way better for a support role since they can also fight if need be. VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #16 VolkerE, Jun 8, 2016 Last edited: Jun 8, 2016 - changes to AUTO behaviour: in the long run yes, but in the short term changes like that can trigger huge bugs if not tested thoroughly, hence this will not be an update that will come through quickly. I am currently collating things that compete to go in the next update, I have already added the 'use mana funnel when run out of mana' to the list. Above is a bit more than that, added now. - EXORCISE: that was slightly misleading, sorry. A regular monk is not meant to perform these rituals. But there is a way he can have exorcise skill: if he is born as an unusually 'righteous' person (feat). This is a case of feats granting powers not otherwise obtainable afterwards, which I deliberately wanted to have a few of. I will correct the explanation. - I found RANGERS to be one of the most versatile classes. you won't reach the max possible 'ranged' skill level early in the game, so he can be used as an archer (but with better armor). But if you are fighting undead and have not found any bows with elemental damage yet, you can just give him a 'sword of consecration' and he turns into a very valuable player in those fights. - CLERIC: 'resist evil' is very useful spell for fighting undead (which is 1/3 of all enemies). Holy chant skill is SUPERB against undead. Exorcise is a massive nuclear weapon you can use (with great care). He can also heal much better than druids, and ultimately he can become an exorcist or priest. If you are not facing the risk of massive damage, yes a cleric is a bit of a drag. He also every other level-up gets a class specific +undead damage bonus, so this can make him a weak but feasible helper for fights vs. undead. stubbieausi New Member Mar 22, 2016 3 0 0 #17 stubbieausi, Jun 8, 2016 Such a wealth of fantastic info for beginners and veterans alike. Thanks Volker. I have the original version still and I got this new version as well. It certainly looks a lot different than the original especially with the GUI. Takes a bit of getting used to. Happy to see though that now it supports iPhones. Hopefully it will generate new sales so you can keep supporting the game. A great rpg with lots of skills/spells/stats to play with. Tactical combat becomes quite challenging later on in the game. Lots to like if you grew up playing the early computer rpg's. eugenemcardle Well-Known Member May 21, 2013 357 9 18 Retired, Math/Science Teacher, Air Force Electron Redcliffe Queensland Australia #18 eugenemcardle, Jun 8, 2016 Love it, so many numbers and stats to fiddle with! iPad mini2 is the perfect size for me. Thanks for a great game. Ponycakes Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Jun 27, 2012 70 0 0 #19 Ponycakes, Jun 8, 2016 OK, the tip you gave about armor of "Example 3: a dragon charges your level 40 priest. he is dead." just made me buy this game. VolkerE Well-Known Member Patreon Bronze Dec 11, 2014 246 0 0 https://www.facebook.com/dungeonsofchaos/ #20 VolkerE, Jun 8, 2016 then you will love my in-game humor, too. well hidden but there to be discovered. ;-) Talk to the guys in the "All The Way INN". (You must log in or sign up to post here.) 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As promised - repost from original (pre-Unity) release: So, I passed this up when it first released thinking it was 'too rough' around the edges at that point. I had meant to follow its progress but it slipped off my radar. I have just now read all 15 pages of comments on here, checked the website and the new App Store page and I can safely say I'm really glad I didn't buy in to this from the start..... .....because now I get it in full Unity glory AND on my iPhone too! Whoop, whoop! # What can I say - I'm sold. I'm only sorry to the dev I didn't have enough faith to support it from the outset. I will happily leave TA and App Store feedback once I've had a chance to get to grips with it - to be honest though, it will be positive no matter how I feel about the game as Volkers dedication must be applauded alone. From early on, you admitted this isn't making a fortune and that it's a labour of love - and despite the relatively low sales you reported, you've not only continued to expand it but also completely port it to Unity and shrink it to handheld size. Amazing. Well done that man! This reminds me of the dedication that Sami Sierla lavished on 'Cavern' - again, very retro aesthetics but a hugely compelling game underneath. And still being supported and developed 6 years later.....the bar has been set Volker! # Can't wait to sink my teeth in to this later tonight.
some help with key game mechanics This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about some of the mechanics of the game, but skills and spells and classes will probably be a separate post. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. The non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. OPTIONS I have included several pages of options in the game, you can change how the controls appear, how fast things are, how the fight behaves, fight message popups, daylight cycle, dungeon run auto-walk feature, fight positioning etc. etc. Try out what best works for you. My personal tip for the real retro experience is to have the walking speed not set too fast. You may want to speed it up as you traverse large maps, but in an NPC location or atmospheric setting, walking speed leaning toward the min setting gives a nice feel. The difficulty setting is also very important. If you are well versed in RPGs of old, set it to higher than normal. It changes many things from monster count, damage and armour, chance of events, etc. Loot is slightly rarer under higher settings. AUTO FIGHT MODE Now this is something I designed from scratch based on my own experience that low level monster fights can otherwise be too tedious. In essence: - You can decide for each player individually whether they follow an auto-tactic or whether you control them manually. You can set that at start of the fight or change any time into the fight. - You can set several auto parameters, like whether the player should use attack spells, or whether they should stop using attack spells once they are down to X% of full mana, so they can continue to cast heal + healing aura. Note: only basic attacks spells are used. AUTO will not use all your mana in the first turn to cast METEOR on a rat. - You can set parameters by which the auto turns itself off, like own health % or anyones health %. - Practical use #1: if you are fighting low level monsters: all on auto and see how you go. Note: you can also set the auto fight speed in the options menu. - Practical use #2: you are fighting monsters that should be ok, but they land some lucky blows and now you are in trouble (ghost and spectres). Turn the auto OFF for your cleric, and use holy chant which is a daily power skill and weakens and hurts them. Auto mode will NEVER use daily power skills itself. Auto can use cooldown skills though if you tell it to (e.g. basic defense buffs or the sprint skill). So in this case you use full auto and by-exception you switch a player on manual to pop a daily. - Practical use #3: you have a highly specialised team, and your ranger shoots and your berserker melees. But for your druid, you want to cast a flurry of area effect spells just at the right time, mixed with armor and resistance boosts to your front line players. In that case I leave the druid on manual all the time, which means the fight runs on auto but pauses every time it is the druids turn. This feels like you are steering the fight. Side-note: you can 'mark' a target which is a button at the top right with a red crosshair. Any player on auto mode that has a choice of several targets in range, will aim for that target. This way if you fight a medium-level boss with lots of minions and you want your knight and archer to ignore the minions (all hail for the knights protected hellforged warplate of vigor which makes him a formidable tank), set the target to the boss. SCREEN SIZE Ever since I released the iPAD version in December 2014 I have been begged to make an iPhone (and Android) port. I said at the time that a tile-based game that features exploration and tactical combat arenas are tricky given how small phones can be. I have done the following to make it as feasible as possible: - There is a magnifying glass in the main map view. You can walk around entirely in zoomed-in mode which gives a nice visual appeal even on a phone as small as an iPhone5C, which has been my main testing device for this purpose. You can obviously see less in that zoomed view, but I made sure that is not a disadvantage by leaving the auto-map to keep tracking the expanded view, and by making sure if I do place secret stuff somewhere that you walk past it at a distance that works in close view. But in general if you want to find all my Easter eggs you ned to search everywhere anyway. - I have replaced awkward text-based buttons in the map view with icons. - The directional buttons are fully scalable in the options menu, so you can see what works best for you. - I have completely redesigned EVERY (!) screen, canvas, user interface and button. The game is in fact a complete re-built due to it being in Unity so it felt natural to remodel everything with a phone screen in mind. Which is why it took until now to get the game done. - I have weighed off different pros and cons and arrived at the layouts you see today. If you have feedback, please be mindful that it may not apply to everyone and I would be reluctant to change the UI because it is hard to check who is happy vs. who is not. I dont want to break something that works for most people. Ratings so far indicate that people are doing ok (or havent seen the magnifying button yet).
some help with FIGHTS This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about fight mechanics and player/mob conditions. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. Any non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. Please be mindful that fight mechanics are a choice. I chose these, you may have chosen or preferred it slightly differently. If you have suggestions, message me, I will consider them, but most likely will not make radical design changes to these. FLANKING Flanking matters for accuracy and evasion. If your fighter is next to an orc, a 2nd player attacking him will benefit from the orcs reduced ability to move or see the attack coming. So this is true for ranged and melee attackers. Same happens to players. Flanking benefit is enhanced if the attacker is good in the no escape skill. Rogues, assassins. Flanking impact to the attacker is reduced if the attacker has the nimble skill. Monks etc. RANGED ACCURACY Ranged attacks that use the full range of the weapon have the accuracy reduced. One third or half range usually stops giving penalties. ARMOR CLASS AND PHYSICAL DAMAGE Physical armor works as follows: first, for every 100 points of armor the damage gets halved. Then, for every 10 points of armor the remaining damage gets reduced by 1. This is calculated for each of the 3 physical damage types separately (slice, pierce, force) then added up. Example 1: a rat has an attack that rolls a pre-armor pierce damage of 10. It hits your player who has 50 points of armor vs piercing (pretty good for an early party). First, the 10 reduces by about 25% (0.5 to the potency of 0.5), so 8 points left. Then 5 points reduced. so he takes 3 points of damage. Example 2: a dragon charges your level 40 knight. raw damage is 300 force damage. He has 200 armor vs force damage which is amazing (armor vs force is the toughest to accumulate). This means the damage is halved twice, to 75. then reduced by 20. So he takes 55 damage. Example 3: a dragon charges your level 40 priest. he is dead. RESISTANCES Resistances stack like layers: if you have two rings that grant 50% fire resistance each, then your fire resistance from items is 75%. (the exposure to fire is 100% and then halved by each ring, to leave exposure of 25%). For fire, lightning, magic and life-draining, resistance reduces the damage received from that type of attack. For cold, damage reduction applies but also the COLD condition is not as strong, which slows you and is explained in more detail later. For poison, the initial and ongoing damage is reduced, which effectively shortens the duration as well. For paralysis and critical hits resistance, the % determines the chance that you do not suffer the impact that is otherwise coming your way. CONDITIONS: Every monster and player can in theory be under the following conditions, several at the same time possibly: BLEEDING, POISONED, PARALYSED, STUNNED, ASLEEP, FROZEN. They all have little symbols in any of the four corners of his tile to show it. Just covering one of the more complex ones today: BLEEDING. Some monsters cant bleed, and in the LOG view (top right button in map view), you will learn who they are. In general: elemental earth/stone creatures, skeletal or ghostly creatures cant. Once you bleed, you need to use magic or a similar healing power to get rid of it. Else your bleed counter will cause you damage every few ticks. You dont see ticks in fight mode but that is how time works in the background. A movement for a beginner player usually takes 80 ticks. You usually bleed about every 20 ticks. For some monsters, their massive health and regenerative abilities means that just having a tank that sustains all the damage and someone slowly stacking bleed-inducing attacks can work to take him down. Spoiler Note on BLEED TRIGGER: for your normal attacks, you can see the attack stats in party view mode, it will say chance to cause bleeding with a %. If you hit with your attack, a roll is made between 0..100 and if it is below that %, you caused bleeding. Bleeding added is 1 for every 25 points of damage, but a minimum of 1. Example: your assassin uses a obsidian ceremonial knife of cutting. This is an item with high cause bleeding chance plus obsidian gives another 25-40% plus of cutting adds more. So you probably have a 90%. The knife does not do a lot of damage, probably only resulting in 2 to be added to a bleed counter of the target on hit, but because the assassin is quick and using a very small (=quick) weapon, the result is that he is making a swiss cheese out of the enemy ogre. Even if he has to retreat and recover once in a while with the ogre chasing after him, the bleeding never stops and he is slowly winning. Most spells or healing skills will heal some bleeding, higher skill/spell levels would be more effective. Some monsters like trolls have natural healing abilities that not only recover health quickly but also heal wounds. So the before mentioned breaking-bad-toothbrush-in-prison assassin build is no good here.
some help with how SKILLS work Main philosophy for this SKILL discussion: I won't give away precise numbers, just some flavour. Black = SPOILER (hover over to see text). SKILLS WEAPON SKILLS. Each relates to a weapon type, including unarmed if you wield none. Increasing a weapon skill gives additional accuracy for every single point, but only when you are hitting, this impact is NOT showing in the stats screen because the stats screen shows just intrinsic abilities and equipment modifiers. In addition, every item has a set of weapon attack styles that you can use, and has a different threshold for the weapon skill from when it becomes available. Example: there is a 2h axe which allows you to use a SPIN attack after you reach a 2h axe skill level of about 70 from memory. SPIN hits ALL adjacent enemies around the attacker. Cool, eh? But another 2h axe may NOT have this attack style, but instead have others. Unarmed has a set of styles similar to weapons, with ‘final touch’ being the most powerful one. Attack styles grant bonus and penalties to things like speed, accuracy, damage, stun, bleed, crib hit%. You need to check you are changing your attack style after you increase your skill, it does not go automatic. IDENTIFY: increases chance of an item in treasure or fight loot being identified. You generally fail if a condition, suffix or prefix is new. Apart from the skill level, it also helps if you have already found many of the same type. PERCEPTION: determines many things: if you spot a secret passage when you walk past, if you spot a secret passage when you specifically SEARCH the right spot (low skill and you may still not see it even if you stare at it!), whether you notice monsters approaching while you rest. This a grouped skill. SNEAKING: even when you enter the range by which a monster group can notice you, this grouped skill gives you a chance to continue without being spotted. RAGE: low duration, fairly powerful attack buff. A daily skill. The speed and accuracy are slightly higher, and the damage is significantly higher. Evasion is far worse though. So this is used when you need to make it count. Invoking rage takes a small amount of time. This is a ‘levelled skill’ whereby once you hit a proficiency level of 10,20,30 etc. you see it labels as a new level, and it will be available more often per day, and be more powerful. DETERMINATION: daily skill that simply speaking makes sure you make the next attack count. You get a significant bonus to accuracy and a slight bonus to crit hit%. It takes NO time, so in effect you just declare an attack a special attack by invoking this, no loss of time, no friend or foe is acting before you use it. Also a levelled skill. SHADOW SHIFT: allows you to teleport into the shadow of a creature, friend or foe, that is a few tiles away. Takes a small amount of time. Spoiler Best used to create quick flanking benefits or to make sure the boss enemy is not teleporting too far away and recovering. Daily skill, levelled skill. ENDURE ELEMENTS: permanent increase in basic resistances. fully passive, and impact visible in RESIST view instantly. TAUNT: reduces all enemies’ accuracy and physical armor by distracting them. It is a fine art, think ‘Men in Black distracting the boss cockroach’. Impact is small though, but cheap. Daily skill, levelled skill. Well-timed, it is an easy benefit. Using this while you are already in range to hit and be hit? probably a bad idea, spend your turn hitting them hard. DIVINE FAVOUR: not yet fully implemented in the game, at present this grants a powerful healing to all players. EXORCISE - a daily skill which a cleric or priest can get some rudimentary proficiency in (and rarely, monks have been seen having this skill from 'birth'), but higher levels are restricted to the exorcist class. It is a ritual that REALLY hurts an undead creature. At lower levels the range is 2 tiles, so you don’t need to get as close to the monster as your fighters get. Spoiler At higher levels, this is even a bit more than 2. The damage is massive compared to anything else you would have at your disposal early on, and there is no protection that would really help the target. Against enemies that otherwise try to shelter themselves from damage (casting resistances, or be naturally immune to physical attacks etc), this can be an instant kill. REPULSION - a daily skill that is really useful against swarming smaller creatures. Imagine you are letting the mobs get particularly close for a second, only to burst out and hurt them with force damage, and potentially push them tile away (if there is no space, additional damage is dealt), and potentially stun them. All three effects are stronger based on skill level and user’s strength. You will not do much to a big boss monster, but if he is troubling you with minions, they will disappear from around you for a small while and take damage and/or be stunned. Also nice to look at. HARDEN UP - a basic cooldown skill, where a fighter for example braces himself for taking damage. Impact is a % bonus to armor class (15% at lowest level, more with higher levels). At higher levels, you also get resistances against elements (and even magic at level 5+, and poison at level 7+). This is one of the skills that are used automatically once recharged if you select the “use defensive buff skills” auto option for a player. This works even if the skill is not one of your quick action buttons. DARK CHANNELING - well, this skill only comes into play in the 2nd half of the game and I don’t want to explain these in too much detail. Essentially, you give up health for mana. Spoiler Somehow the weaker you are already and the weaker you make yourself in the process, the more mana you get. Rumour has it, if you are on the brink of death, it costs no further health and gives you FULL mana. SPRINT - this is a cooldown skill that is also used by auto mode, if you activate it and make a move action, the move is much faster. if you activate it and do an action that is not a move, than it has no effect. You can use it to reach ranged attackers faster to take them out, or assume a flanking position quickly. or to make sure you stay ahead of a chasing enemy while your ranged attackers weaken him. Higher skill level means faster sprint, and shorter cooldown required. NO ESCAPE - a passive skill that increases the benefit YOU get from flanking an enemy. You know how to direct a blow so that your target has lesser change of evasion. NIMBLE - a passive skill that lowers the impact that flanking benefits have when you are attacked. HOLY CHANT - a daily skill that grants small bonuses to accuracy, evasion and crate hit chance (so always useful), and a SIGNIFICANT boost to “vs. undead” damage modifier. You can essentially save the day if you have melee fighters that do not ave vs. undead bonuses, and they are facing spectres or ghosts which are immune to physical damage. Once triggered, they are all getting a significant bonus, which turns their 0% damage into at least 200% damage. undead creatures that are immune to physical attacks normally have low health so you will cut them down very quickly. Spoiler Note: several players using holy chant has a compounding effect. But the same person cannot invoke a second chant while the first is still having an effect. SHIELD BASH - a cooldown skill that is also used by auto mode. You effectively add more force damage and stun chance to your melee attack. Higher skill means more impact and shorter cooldown. SHOULDER BASH - similar to shield bash, but weaker. If you have both, you will effectively be using your entire body to pummel your opponents in whatever way you can. HEALING HANDS - daily skill. heal an adjacent player. the healing impact is stronger the weaker the player is. So very effective if you are in trouble and have made sure you are close to your fighters. MAGIC LORE - if you want to not just increase your spell proficiency by using a spell, but want to increase proficiency fast by using talent points, then magic lore has too impacts: first it is your natural MAX level because at higher spell proficiency, it is harder to know what you can improve. Spell books help with the amount of increase gained per TP, but cannot raise the MAX. Magic lore also helps increasing the gain per TP. LOCK PICKING - ability to open locked chests or doors. The player with the highest score is what matters most, with a small impact from what skill other players have. MANA FUNNEL - you use your arcane powers to direct the flow of mana in a way that it hurts a target. None of your own mana is used, so it has no cost. The damage is small, but can make a difference if you are out of mana. Spoiler Also, legend has it that have studied this art to such an extent that they can rival people using the more common attack spells. At no cost… MONSTER LORE - the party’s total score in monster lore, as well as the distance to an enemy, are compared to the difficulty in reading a monster’s health. The outcome determines at what distance, if at all, you can tell the health of a monster. this shows in combat. Some monsters are very difficult to read as they are not your normal living being. TANK STANCE - a bit similar to HARDEN UP, but more powerful. So powerful in fact that it also has a downside: it reduces accuracy and speed. But the armor boost and evasion is probably worth it. BERSERKER’S WILL - ability to ignore/withstand a STUN impact inflicted by your opponents. May not seemlier a big deal until you start to fight stone golems, minotaurs or dragons … POISON BOOST - an assassin’s common daily skill. he has some poison ready and can spend some time out of combat to apply it to his weapon. The poison is very strong, and will crystalise/neutralise after a few turns. But in that time, it can prove very deadly.
some help with how SPELLS work This post will be continuously expanded. It will contain details about SPELLS and what you can achieve with them. Where you see a dark SPOILER section, hover over it to see it. 'spoiler' is probably a fitting description. If you read too much of this, you probably need to increase your difficulty setting. Any non-black sections are what you really should know, no spoiling there. Quick summary of SPELLS: RESIST EVIL / FIRE / COLD / POISON / MAGIC / LIGHTNING These spells will boost the resistance that the target character has, for a period of time. Extent and duration increase with spell level. Resist evil works against the life draining damage you will face when fighting ghosts, spectres, lich, banshees, wights etc. The effect is smaller if you are on a higher difficulty setting, which by the way is normally a small factor in every skill and spell. Spoiler Several same spells on the same target will stack, like layers. So similar to equipment: if a target has two spell buffs active that grant him 50% fire resistance each and his intrinsic resistance is zero, then his fire resistance is 75% because his exposure of 100% gets halved twice. AC BOOST Also sometimes called resist physical is a similar buff, but adds armor class points to a target. at low level it starts with about ~50 points to each of the 3 types of damage, which is about a 25% damage reduction. FROST BALL Area effect spell, inflicts cold damage and freezes several target. Radius and effect increases with spell level, but radius general smaller than ball of lightning or fire ball. The effect is so cool it even leaves visual effects on the battlefield. POISON DART The spell caster (mostly druids) picks up anything small and sharp from the ground, magically alters its surface to create a toxic slime, and projects it at the target. Due to the rudimentary projectile, the range is very limited. But effect can be simple and deadly Spoiler , in particular if stacked several times . Range improves slightly at higher levels. UNLOCK Map view spell to manipulate a lock so it is easier to open. This still benefits / relies upon your lock picking skill, but at very high levels any non-rogue can open locks with such heavy magical assistance. MAGIC MISSILE The most basic and common magical attack. Unlimited range, guided (always hits), but not a lot of damage to a bulky opponent. But very effective against entities that are vulnerable to magic, for example those that are fairly invulnerable to physical attacks. Though not their preference, even druids and clerics can learn to use magic missiles. LIGHTNING STRIKE One of the favourites of the druids, he will manipulate the natural forces around the target (the floor, air or water) to have it hit by a lightning charge. The damage is nominally lower than that of a magic missile, however resistance lightning is rarer, and lightning strike has a chance to paralyse the target as well, in particular at higher levels. LIGHT Map view spell to allow you to see further than your always-on torches would do. Higher levels mean better radius as well as duration. HEAL Without distance limitations, a cleric or priest, but also druids or monks, can use their magical powers to heal a target. Higher levels make such much more effective. Spoiler Rumour has it that some also use this for darker means, but it would surely come at a price to try such foolishness. HOTSPOT A no-nonsense spell that increases the temperature around a target, and setting the air on fire for a short period of time. But no ongoing damage. No range restriction. FIRE BALL A classic, enjoyable projectile that explodes into flames on impact. Higher levels mean longer range, wider explosion radius and more damage. You also leave your mark on the battlefield just to show who is boss. HASTE Increases the targets speed. If you really think there is a single player that carries the fate of the fight, then why not make him more efficient by boosting his speed and make him do everything faster and more often. Quite expensive and short duration though. But can be vital if time is of the essence. WIZARDS EYE A map view spell that enhances your perception, allowing you to spot secret passages and treasure much better. IGNITE A spell whereby you direct energy at all foes until they erupt into a prolonged fire, dealing ongoing fire damage. This can be stacked. Excellent for minion control (read: auto-kill). HOLY SMITE You use your mana to charge up a mighty holy blow on your next turn. If you do not attack right after, it fades. It creates a huge bonus vs. undead, and some bonus to accuracy. A mighty tool in the hands of an exorcist but also any monk that wants to get his hands dirty. Clerics and priests are not very good (but not hopeless) at this. HOLY PLASMA Instead of trying to make your weapon/self more damaging to an undead being, you focus on blessing any substance you can get your hands on and attach it to the target. This provides ongoing damage and debuffs the target as well, and duration is not short either. Spoiler Good to move in, slap it on, and move back into safe distance. This also stacks. MYSTERY 32 If you see this you have played the pre-1.0.30 versions of the game. Please ignore and overwrite the quick action slot with any of your other skills or spells. 8-p MAGIC RUPTURE Some think this is similar to IGNITE, however a very different concept is at play: instead of focussing on the foes to trigger a reaction and get on with life, the caster triggers a general rupture of the fabric of mana flows, causing magic damage exposure to everyone. But he separately prepares a magical shield for the party members, so that they are not affected. The damage from magic rupture is significant and has a long duration, however the spell caster is busy the entire duration with shielding the party members. Spoiler Best crowd control EVER. BALL OF LIGHTNING You create a powerful electric charge similar to a lightning strike, but stronger and more concentrated. At the spot you choose, it then discharges and hits many foes in a considerable radius. Can paralyse. Radius increases with proficiency, but impact reduces with distance from centre. METEOR Single target. The rest should be obvious. If you cant defeat them the ordinary way, crush them under a piece of astronomical debris. Period. If the force damage wont kill them, they should be stunned for a bit. Spoiler If not, RUN. HEALNG AURA More than just your ordinary HEAL spell, this will heal all party members, however the effect is distributed in a wave with its benefit shrinking quickly with each tile, so players farther away get much less benefit. Close by, this heals more than the single spell does. The effort is so immense though that the caster is left dizzy, impacting evasion, speed etc. RESURRECT Does what it says on the tin. But is time-consuming so cannot be performed in combat. Any form of resurrection (!) incurs an XP penalty to the target, but professional help incurs the least. Higher levels mean less penalty. DISGUISE Lowers the chance of being detected by roaming monsters even when you are within their range of perception. Once they noticed you, the spell has no impact anymore and they will do the usual chasing if they feel like it.
As I said in the other thread, I could never get into the first iteration of this game. But with the update/grade, I took the chance and am very pleased with the result. I spent some time last night playing it and can say that this is going to take up a lot of my time. One of the biggest complaints I had was that the instructions were too complicated and the visuals too small. This, to me, has been resolved in this new version. In fact, I didn't have to resort to the instructions much at all. The play is much more intuitive to me and the magnifier really helps me see what I'm doing. Thank you for sticking with this game and making it much better.
Now that's how you pre-empt the inevitable questions surrounding a game (re)release! Wow, that's a lot of help and advice to read through, thanks Volker.
Hi getting ready to download but just curious if this is roguelike ( game over upon death) or re start from where you died etc looks great I don't know how I ever missed the first version of this cause it's my favorite type of game
If one player dies, you need to find a cleric to revive or have a proper priest with you. If everyone dies, you get teleported to the archmage and revived. All of this incurs some XP penalty. No perma death. But I love roguelikes and will do a spin-off of this game in a roguelike setting in the years to come. But some location are randomised and use my own room and corridor placing routines, so a bit like Angband or Rogue. But without the massive vaults...
I bought the first one and I'm happy to buy it again, considering all the love and polish that has gone into it.
Enjoying so far. Anyone know where I can find a priest early on? Never mind, figured it out. The priest who does Heal All also resurrects simultaneously.
Volker: - Any chance that you'll improve the auto combat behavior of the party? Taunt is not used despite being a cooldown ability. Casters just stand idly when they run low on mana. They could use their ranged weapons (Druid) or mana funnel (Mage). - Your Exorcise description here says it's useable by monks. My monk has a maximum skill of 0 for Exorcise. Is that a bug or did you change it for balance reasons after writing the text. I also got two more general question: - Can someone tell me how (and why) to use a ranger? Archers are better in ranged combat, fighter and barbarians in melee. They don't excel in any useful skill and don't have spells (I realize that might change with upgraded classes but I'm judging the base class here). - What to do with a cleric? If there's nothing to heal/buff, he's useless. Monk or druid seem way better for a support role since they can also fight if need be.
- changes to AUTO behaviour: in the long run yes, but in the short term changes like that can trigger huge bugs if not tested thoroughly, hence this will not be an update that will come through quickly. I am currently collating things that compete to go in the next update, I have already added the 'use mana funnel when run out of mana' to the list. Above is a bit more than that, added now. - EXORCISE: that was slightly misleading, sorry. A regular monk is not meant to perform these rituals. But there is a way he can have exorcise skill: if he is born as an unusually 'righteous' person (feat). This is a case of feats granting powers not otherwise obtainable afterwards, which I deliberately wanted to have a few of. I will correct the explanation. - I found RANGERS to be one of the most versatile classes. you won't reach the max possible 'ranged' skill level early in the game, so he can be used as an archer (but with better armor). But if you are fighting undead and have not found any bows with elemental damage yet, you can just give him a 'sword of consecration' and he turns into a very valuable player in those fights. - CLERIC: 'resist evil' is very useful spell for fighting undead (which is 1/3 of all enemies). Holy chant skill is SUPERB against undead. Exorcise is a massive nuclear weapon you can use (with great care). He can also heal much better than druids, and ultimately he can become an exorcist or priest. If you are not facing the risk of massive damage, yes a cleric is a bit of a drag. He also every other level-up gets a class specific +undead damage bonus, so this can make him a weak but feasible helper for fights vs. undead.
Such a wealth of fantastic info for beginners and veterans alike. Thanks Volker. I have the original version still and I got this new version as well. It certainly looks a lot different than the original especially with the GUI. Takes a bit of getting used to. Happy to see though that now it supports iPhones. Hopefully it will generate new sales so you can keep supporting the game. A great rpg with lots of skills/spells/stats to play with. Tactical combat becomes quite challenging later on in the game. Lots to like if you grew up playing the early computer rpg's.
Love it, so many numbers and stats to fiddle with! iPad mini2 is the perfect size for me. Thanks for a great game.
OK, the tip you gave about armor of "Example 3: a dragon charges your level 40 priest. he is dead." just made me buy this game.
then you will love my in-game humor, too. well hidden but there to be discovered. ;-) Talk to the guys in the "All The Way INN".
