Universal Arcane Quest 2 - Dawn of the guild

After playing some more, the graphical glitches are still there but the game is playable. Ipad air

 

I don't have a Google+ account, so I can't really comment on how widespread/accepted it is on iOS.
Hosting your own server just for matchmaking is a bit of a hassle and not worth it in my opinion.
Maybe you can offer both G+ and Gamecenter, if it's not too much work?

Multiplayer:
I think the singleplayer experience should stay as it is. Would feel weird to me if someone suddenly jumped into my main quest.
Hard to say how well a multiplayer "campaign" would work, where you play scenarios that tie into each other.
How about starting with standalone scenarios that you can play co-op? If that goes well, you can always expand.

 

Here are two screenshots of the graphics glitches. Those definitely did not happen before I updated to 2.1.0 .
I am pretty sure on my Air it's not a memory issue, as I always keep that as clean as possible.
The glitches happen pretty randomly, e.g. I can do 5 battles without a single one, and the next 2 almost every battle screen is glitched.

 

In case anyone is interested:
I swapped out my lvl5 Assassin for the Warrior. Comparing the best weapons for both, I figured the Warrior will do more damage and more consistently too.
Plus he can wear a shield and heavy armor, making him a better tank as well.
I fed him as many kills as possible, leveling him from 2 to 4 in two short dungeons.
First one was especially noteworthy, as he ended up with almost 40 kills from a one-level bountyhunt (2nd to last on the list, against the Vampire lady).

@Nedox: How far does the Assassin's backstab skill increase? Does it rise in level again after level 5?
In any case, I'd say Assassin's backstab should at least do the same amount & color of dice on the high end of things (e.g. lvl 5+ , both with lvl 4/5 equipment) as the Warrior's normal attack.

 

A thought regarding ingame economy:
I perfectly understand that you want/need to make money from IAP ingame currency sales.

But currently I find the item/gold economy quite broken:
Gold is scarce, so you cannot afford to buy everything as it becomes available; it's difficult for one character, for all 4 it's impossible.

Now, here's the catch:
Aside from being impatient and wanting everything "right now" , there is no reason to spend anything on currency IAP. Which I very much appreciate, as you don't follow the example of many others, that basically force you to cough up real money to get anything done.

It's perfectly doable to go from lvl1/2 equipment straight to lvl5, skipping everything in between.
I currently have 1 level 4 weapon (which was the maximum spear available anyways) . The rest is level 1 & 2, and I'm not having any trouble making my way through the dungeons.
My dwarf starts to have some problems doing enough damage by now (Cyclops dungeon) , but he's first in line to get a lvl5 weapon: after this dungeon I should easily have enough to buy the best axe. And half of the time he rolls extremely well (e.g. 10-2 att-def) , easily making up for the times he does 0 damage.

Can I suggest to make money more plentiful, so you can actually buy the level 2-4 equipment? Instead of - due to lack of gold - skip everything and go right for lvl5?
I believe that such a change will make for a better game experience overall, while hopefully not depriving you of income.
It does not have to be enough for all characters. But having 2-3 with the best equipment for their level, and 1-2 with "hand-me-downs" to me sounds better than the current situation.

Also, I almost completely skipped spells (except for the Firewall 1 and Healing 1) , for the same reason of having to carefully decide where my gold goes.
In essence, I think that the gold scarcity locks away the equipment & spell part of the game, where it should be open to a more "normal" progression as you have in many other games, adding to the overall game experience.

 

I agree with Nullzone. Great game, by the way, but I feel pinched for gold all the time. My guys (Wizard, Ranger, Dwarf and Cleric) are around level 4 and I feel like the competition in the dungeons is always difficult. Maybe I have been buying the wrong things, but I feel like my guys are always under armored and have a frustrating number of damage-less rolls when attacking. I also have completely ignored spells because I felt like all of my gold goes to weapons and armor. Thanks for the great work and keep it up!

TB

 

@Nedox: About the Tower:
I have 4 pieces now, but still no tier complete.
Might be better to give them out in such a way that the tiers fill up with each piece you get.
E.g. first piece fills tier 1, 2nd & 3rd fill tier 2, etc.

 

@Tortoiseboy:
Only upgrade when you absolutely have to, e.g. because you take too much damage or can't hit monsters anymore.
Focus on weapons first, armor second. And try to skip as many tiers as possible.

Ranger's Piercing Strike is great against hard-to-hits like bosses. Save the Dwarf's and Warrior's skill for boss fights or when you absolutely need them.
I just now figured out that you can use the Intelligence(?) potions (that give back spell uses) with them, too Never thought of that, I considered spells and skills to be separate.

Level 1 equipment is cheap, try to get a full armor set for everyone if you don't have it already.
I'd ignore the Amulets and Belts for the beginning, but at some point get level 1 boots for the Warrior and level 2's for the Dwarf to increase their movement range a bit.

How far into the game are you currently?

Oh, and try the Assassin contracts in the southwest corner. They are not too hard, and give good money and XP.

 

I am happy to spend IAP in a game that obviously is getting this genuine of love from its dev. I don't think the game is impossible - therefor I don't know if I agree with making it easier for people to avoid donating/purchasing IAp. Keep up the great work.

Ps I'm a little biased as I am a game dev and work on some pretty well known projects. However we have steer clear of IOS for the simple fact that not enough people seem to feel that paying for games on the platform is worthwhile.

 

@Luckithroe: Unfortunately you are correct iOS is one huge "I want my stuff for free" fest.
Personally, I wouldn't mind paying 10€ for Arcane Quest: good quality has a price everywhere else, too.
But for the time being, race to the bottom is what we have price-wise for the majority of iOS users.

For what it's worth, I bought the Character Pack almost right away, and the largest moneypack just yesterday (and will get that one again) . A small token of appreciation, I know. But the best I can do to show my support.

But I think my - hopefully constructive - criticism is valid It's not like we have one of the IAP-fests here, where you are "encouraged" to shell out a 100 bucks to get what should be part of the normal game experience.

 

Not sure if this is a bug or if I'm missing something:
I noticed that my hero skills suddenly disappear for no apparent reason. For example, I played through about half of the 3rd level of "Land of Cyclops" , saving the skills for the bossfight. A few rooms before the boss, I see that the skills for all four characters are gone and I can no longer activate them.
The only one that was still available was the Ranger's Piercestrike.

I saw this several times already since I updated to 2.1.0, and most of the time it affects the Warrior and Dwarf, while the Ranger & Elf are still ok. Sometimes the Ranger's "Avoid Traps" skill also disappears, and rarely my Elf's Healing skill is affected too.

Mana is full for the heroes, so that's not it. Drinking an intelligence potion so far makes the skill show up again.

So far I have not noticed that any monsters can drain skill uses, which makes me think it's a bug.

 

And one more:
Nedox, could you explain how spell cooldown/usage works exactly?
All I could figure out so far is that after a number of uses skills/spells are no longer available and I need an Intelligence potion or proceed to the next dungeon level.
But I have no clue what actually triggers this
At first I thought it's related to the number next to the hourglass symbol in the spell description. But I waited e.g. 3 turns and that did not change anything; so I assume this is not a cooldown indicator.
Does the hourglass stat mean how many uses of the spell you have before you recharge, maybe?

UPDATE: That info is in the helpfile, overlooked it at first. The hourglass does indeed specify how many times you can cast a spell before you need to recharge. I can't come up with a better icon, though.

 

Thanks for the info, Nullzone. I agree that hoarding gold is the way to go. I have been learning slowly how to use my skill more effectively, too. I have found that buying the wizard a really good staff and armor is a very good idea because I can then tank enough to attack and defend my MP back up

One other potential bug I have noticed is that a good portion of the time, I will roll a star with Ranger's bow (the one that gives an extra action) or the wizard's staff or armor and I won't get the bonus. Is this working as designed? Seems like if you roll at star, you should get the bonus.

TB

 

Ranger extra action: That had me puzzled at first, too. You need to tap her again after her attack completed.

Interesting how you use the Wizard. I found him too squishy and the spells a bit underwhelming, so I swapped him out quite early. I might have to bring him back later, depending on if the buff spells become necessary.

 

Actually, it wasn't the ranger extra action that had me confused, it was actually rolling the bonus in the first place. I think what I was missing was that you have to actually "win" the dice roll to get the star to kick in. So if you roll the star and you have fewer shields/swords than your opponent, you don't get the bonus.

I have really enjoyed the wizard ever since I started using this strategy. He is really powerful for dealing with high-defense enemies, usually bosses. Having him and the ranger makes boss fight really quick and easy. I just use fireballs and pierce to knock the boss out from across the room. Then, I just mop up the little fellas. I think if I pry loose enough gold to afford some other spells to fill his 3 other slots, he will be a juggernaut.

TB

 

@Nedox: Welcome back! Hope you had pleasant travels. And no worries, I figured you were off on christmas vacation or somesuch

I can confirm the bug with the Warrior/Dwarf spells, and it also affects at least the Ranger's Trapwalk spell. I mentioned it a page or two back: sometimes they disappear, and when you feed them an Int potion, they show up again.

Increasing gold amounts in the beginning would help I think, even if it will only affect new players and not do anything for existing games.

I have the graphics glitches as well, mostly with the dice turning really tiny, see screenshot a bit back in the thread. iPad Air 1, iOS 8.1.0 , no jailbreak.