Universal Arcane Quest 3 - Rise of the Fallen - Tabletop RPG

I meant specifically damage caused by cast spells, e.g. the Wizard's Fireball. That is determined by the spell's level only, correct? The weapon's damage dice and Intelligence stat do not add to it?
Would be nice if Intelligence and/or the weapon's damage (think of it as a spell focus) would add to that, for a little more omph. Early game, my Mage was easily on equal footing with my Heavies. But now (everyone around level 8) he's falling behind, and hard.

Here's my current damage ranges:
Barbarian 17-23, Amazon 12-18 & +3 from Lizard transform, Berserker 14-22.
I don't know if these numbers already factor the Barb's and Bers' Sword Proficiency 2 in, or if that gets applied only when actually attacking.

Mage only has 7-10 (ok, he still uses a basic weapon) for ranged magic attack. And Fireball level 4 does 7-15 damage, nothing to write home about anymore. Next level 5 is 9-19, catching up a bit again.

Hhmm, need to think about it a bit more. Looking at the above numbers, only the minimum damage could be the actual problem. Max damage for level 5 looks ok with 19 at first glance.

 

Guess I got lucky then so far
My Mage rarely scores more than 10 damage, while especially my Berserker almost constantly clocks in with 15+.
Happens only once per dungeon level or so that he hits for under 10 damage.

I just completed the town where you ferry over to the mainland, and am almost done with the first mainland quest.
First one I'm getting a beating, by the way. Only 2 or 3 rooms left, but I'm not sure if I can make it. Out of Mana on the Mage, no more heal potions found, and everyone down to half HP.
On the plus side, it's the first stage that gives a bit of a challenge and doesn't feel like I'm just breezing through

 

If you are going to add the automatic save feature in hardcore (which I think sounds great but only if you also get rid of the 5 manual save option) then the penalty for losing a character during a mission needs to be pretty tough.
There should be no way you can go back to an earlier mission save file in that quest that gives you back the lost killed character.
So my suggestion is that you have only two options;

*Continue on doing the rest of the quest without the killed character/s.
*Abandon current quest.

The only problem with this that I can see is of coarse the penalty for losing a character early in a quests mission is not too bad as it is not a great loss to restart the quest.
However that problem soon disappears if you have, lets say, almost completed the first mission in a quest and your other characters have picked up some pretty nice armour/weapons. Then you really have to think if you want to continue with only three characters or restart the whole quest again. This decision becomes harder the further down the mission line you go.

A killed character should also forfeit any XP gained during that quest.

Notice that I say quest and not mission. Just restarting a mission is not a big deal.
So that is why I think having to restart the quest is a far better option.

So in ending I think the save system in hardcore should be something like:

*The game automatically saves at the end of each Quest. You will always have the option to repeat a completed past Quest if you want so as to grind a bit to level up characters and get gold and weapons/armour.

*The game has only one automatic save during a Quest. The only option available is to continue with that one save or abandon the current quest.

*You have no manual saves at all in hardcore. Turning off the game at anytime will automatically save the game.

 

Great improvements on the previous versions, much enjoying this iteration of Arcane Quest.

A couple of minor bugs I've come across (for android, as I've not much found a place with much discussion on that platform, compared to here).
- Wizard gains two skill points per level, not just one like the other characters gain.
- The health and magic bars often change at times to show as being shorter, but fix up to normal size on selecting the character, while the number shows the current value still.

Some suggestions:
- Giving the dwarf access to hammers; hammers are still iconic for the dwarves and gives a more devensive build option, with axes being more offensive and still some progression within the 4-8th level weapons, where just the single axe is the only option.
- likewise letting the Amazon use spears, still iconic for an amazon. Though doesn't need to translate the diagonal attacks while transformed, but gives her more weapon options and a small benefit while not being transformed too.
- Ability to buy multiples of the same weapon or armour from the black-smith. The weapons/armour seem balanced on a character by character basis (any character with the best gear). Yet if you run a group with multiple characters that use the same weapons/armour some will have to end up with inferior gear.
- An option to show dice and bonus for characters and enemies, rather than just the value range. As a few low dice with high bonus will often be a fair bit different to just higher dice with little bonus (or no bonus), despite having much the same numerical range. (obviously optional is better as I'm sure some people prefer just the number range when making their decisions).
- Showing the breakdown of the trap dice in the information would be useful (like has been shown for attack and defense dice). Cursory testing (samples of about 100) on these has offered odd results if it is meant to be an even split of 2 blank sides, 2 gear/disarm sides and 2 damage/explosion sides per die that the information given about traps implies.
- Not sure if it is viable but actually changing weapon models to reflect the weapons characters are using (obviously not an issue for mages given they always use wands) as it feels weird seeing the barbarian (or others) swing an axe when actually using a sword or spear or hammer. While individual weapon and armour changing on the character with the specific weapon used would be great (though likely not that viable) just the simple change with type would likely add a lot.

Thanks (hopefully given some food for thought)

 

20-23 Str on level 10? Oh boy ... are you in for a surprise

Stats for my Barbarian, level 7:
Note that I do not know if the +2Str, +2Dex and +2Con bonus from Guild Upgrades are already in there. But I assume yes, as the stats show in blue (meaning active bonus, correct?) .
Without / with equipment:
Str 24/33, Dex 6/10, Int 4/5, Con 8/8 , HP 16/18, MP 4/6, Att 10-14/17-23, Defense 2-4/4-9, Move 6/7, Sword Proficieny level 2.
Equipment is:
Armageddon Sword, Mail Armor, Sharp Knuckles Gloves, Soul of Wraiths Helmet, The Sentry Shield, Metal Boots, Pendant of Life.

And my Berserker, level 8 (500xp away from 9):
Str 22/29, Dex 8/11, Int 5/5, Con 9/10, HP 18/20, MP 5/8, Att 9-13/14-22, Def 3-5/4-7, Move 6/8, Sword Proficiency 2, Blood Rage 4, Blood Splash 2.

Equipment:
Requiem Sword, Leather Armor, Epic Knuckles, Legendary Greathelm, Reinforced Boots.


I didn't put any points into Dex or Int, simply not needed. I never use their active skills so I don't need Mana; and putting points into Dex is a waste for them.
I think I put 2 points into Con for both of them, but cannot remember for sure.

Amazon I can add later, if you want those stats too.

 

Oh, and I want to add that I do not think a balanced build makes any sense for the Barbarian, Berserker, or Amazon - or most likely for any character, actually.

For Amazon it's really easy:
I only need enough Mana to shapechange her at the start of the dungeon, so no need for any Int. Con? I get more HP from equipment and shapechange. Dex, for a tiny bit more of Critchance? Pass.
So for her everything can go into Strength (she has 24 with equipment, level 8).

Barbarian and Berserker I see only 2 valid builds:
Focus on Strength, so you do more damage with your regular attacks. No need for Dex, Int, or much Con.
Focus on their active direct damage skill: Swap Strength for Int, everything else stays the same.
However, currently the skill damage is pitiful compared to their direct Str-focused attacks.
It might be an option for endgame, if enemies' armor gets too high to easily punch through.

And I didn't even start using their attack-increasing active skills yet, those would add even more punch

 

Thanks for the flowers, but actually I am not. I just have a lot of experience. Never got into the crazy min/maxing and numbercrunching some people do, too lazy for that

Other games call that Nightmare, Torment, whathaveyou mode. Thanks, I'll pass. While I do like a challenge, those are taking it a bit too far for my tastes.

This is indeed becoming a problem now, as I wrote a few posts back. Specifically because I cannot kill everything in one turn anymore. And enemies are strong enough now to hit me and do noticeable damage. Not a problem when it happens only in the last room against a boss. Well a problem when you get 5+hp damage every room, on at least one hero.

Currently going through "A Horizon in Flames", and I am not sure I will make it. Will report back later today.
Which is exactly why armor upgrade is next on my list, I just didn't have time to really think it through yet (which stuff to buy when for whom). And I might drop a few points into Con, but want to see first if better armor alone is enough for now.

 

Oh the thought on enemy dice would obviously to take up more room (even with just small coloured icons for each die type). Maybe one line for attack and one for defense (though not sure how many dice enemies accumulate at later stages). Obviously for those players that would want more minimal approach the numbers would defiantly be more suited for them (though maybe it is just me that would prefer to see the dice at the expense of it taking up a little more room with the enemy panel, no real point doing it for one player though).

As to the weapon changing with type, I was more thinking that weapons would keep the basic way they are so one-handed or two-handed as the character currently has (barbarian for example would just wield a 2 handed sword/hammer even if they are one handed as you don't now see them wielding a shield anyway as a way to kind of fudge it and still ignore the shield) leading to the current animations working, though spears would be an oddity in that respect (so not sure how they would look with current animations).

Thanks for the feedback

 

Party suggestion please

What do you all think would be the weakest party? I want to give it a try at some point, to compare against my current powerhouse of Barbarian, Berserker, Amazon, Mage.
Note that I do not want to create completely unreasonable builds to increase difficulty, e.g. the Wizard focusing on useless skills like Safe Path and Gold Miner.

At first I thought using only squishies (Paladin, Wizard, Summoner, Shaman) would to the trick. But the Summons add a nice chunk of both tankiness and damage, plus they are expendable. This does make this group more powerful than they appear to be at first glance.

How does Paladin, Ranger, Thief, Wizard sound? With the Wiz focused on buffs instead of damage spells. They all should be reasonably squishy, and seem to have to the lowest possible damage potential as well.
Dwarf might be another option. But looking at his skills and available equipment, I can turn him into a veritable tank easily, which would somewhat defeat the purpose of being as undurable as possible.

 

oh yea, I hadn't really consider the animations on the skills in the equation .
Appreciate you giving them a try though, more than many developers would do on a little bit of feedback from their customers

 

That is a good way to implement it.

If possible I would suggest you leave the old hardcore mode as just a "hard" mode.
All you need to do then is just change the title.
People in the middle of playing the old hardcore mode can still continue playing that mode.
That way they will not be penalised. That would be especially bad if they had decided to purchase upgrades for their guild in that mode, so just a name change would seem very fair.

At the same time introduce the "new" hardcore mode with the restrictions that you decide you want.

That sounds fair as people who are in the middle of their current game, be it normal or hardcore, will not have anything change, except for a title change for hard.

So next patch ( I know, I'm sounding pushy)
Three game modes;

Normal
Hard (having your current hardcore restrictions)
Hardcore (having your new fantastic revamped save system in place, and whatever else you decide to implement)

Now theres a game I would want to buy!

(the fact I already bought it is beside the point) #

EDIT;
I just had another thought.
For the really, really hardcore players out there, have one more final option.
After completing all quests in the new hardcore mode you can then open the "Extreme Hardcore" mode!

That is where you have only one automatic save for the whole campaign!
It might help prolong the game meaning you might get more people inclined to purchase gold and arcanes for upgrades. #

 

No worries about that, you did a really good job on the class balance, I dare say
Finding out which party is the least powerful - without going out of my way to make them weak - is a tough job, because there's just so much to factor in. Examples:
I would have thought the Shaman's summons are less powerful than the Evoker's, but you think otherwise.
While the Paladin will do less damage than, say, the Berserker, it's impossible for me to quantify beforehand how much difference her healing will make.
I dismissed the Ranger quite early on, simply because his damage output wasn't high enough for my taste and playstyle. However, tvleavitt wrote that he makes a(nother) good tank, which might easily be more important in the long run:

My idea behind going with the weakest possible party was to use them as baseline for difficulty comparisons.
So far, the party of Barb, Bers, Ama, Wiz seems to be pretty much top-tier in terms of sheer damage output; with really good tanking/staying power on top of it.

 

Your intended phase one and two sound great!
Really encouraging to see you are continuing with updates.

Now, to your question.
Sorry but I'm not quite sure what you refer to as "the dungeon".

I have been trying all along to refer to either "mission" or "quest" to differentiate between the two stages of gameplay, both of coarse involve dungeons.

I think the player should have the option to abandon the whole "quest" and restart it over from the beginning, losing any XP and items they have found during that quest run.

I don't think just abandoning a "mission" and restarting is enough penalty.

I am probably not explaining myself properly and we could both be talking different stuff here.
If you would prefer I can contact you via email so as to not bore the others in this forum with my long winded comments. #