Universal Battle Hunters (by Phase Two Games Pty. Ltd.)

Discussion in 'iPhone and iPad Games' started by MYNAMEWONTFI, Aug 16, 2019.

  1. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    Very nice game so far indeed.
    Yes, I also miss that you don't get to upgrade equipment. But so far, the different heroes make up for it quite nicely.

    Got a question first:
    I completed the first area (Great Forest). But in the Northeast, I have one of those barrier gates left and cannot open it: It has a blue triangle depression, a teleporter right next to it, and was guarded by a Fenrir.
    I *think* I've been everywhere, but didn't find the key for this one. Would appreciate any hints.

    And some feedback/suggestions:
    1. Respec: Free and unlimited respec of skill points please. This should be a given by now, but unfortunately still gets ignored by most devs. Battlechasers got it right, if you need an example.
    2. New Heroes on level 1: Why can't new heroes join at, say, the average level of my group, or highest level of any hero, or whatever? Anything that's higher than level 1 would be an improvement. Having to grind one up before they can be compared to others, let alone useful, makes me rather disinclined to try new ones.
    3. Map zoom out: I'd like to zoom out the overland movement map some more, to have a better overview. Right now, I find the camera too close / viewpoint too far "down" for my tastes.
    4. Teams to easily switch to: I constantly have - and want - to swap heroes around. Already getting a bit tedious, especially when I'm just swapping so a wounded one that I prefer to use can heal up. I'd like to have a few teams - say, 3 for starters - where I pre-fill the 3 slots, and can swap between them easily via a single button. I suggest to either add one to the Inventory menu (less intuitive), or to the hero menu. Hhmm, team setup could be another inventory tab, you need to pick your folks somewhere after all.
    5. Oh, now that I think about it, Healing: Just let heroes in the party heal as well. Saves on the obnoxious swapping :p
    6. Combat : Manually activating all those skills all the time gets a bit tedious as well; especially because I need 3 taps to fire one off. An "when ready, autofire skill on selected enemy" toggle-able option would be just dandy. But even having a Battleheart-style skill button menu and activated skills firing mechanism would make things quite a bit more player-friendly already.
     
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  2. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    UPDATE:
    Ah, found a place where I haven't been yet: Across a bridge in the southeast of the Great Forest map. Now, where to find the key item to activate that one...?
     
  3. gmattergames

    gmattergames Well-Known Member

    Mar 1, 2013
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    #23 gmattergames, Aug 20, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
    Agree, very nice rpg. My main complaint is the point-n-move control vs floating stick. Can’t see the screen with hand in the way, at least playing on phone. Also, would have liked separate volume controls for music and sounds. You would think after years in the making, devs would be so sick of the bgm that separate volume controls would have been a development priority. Either that, or they think their bgm is so awesome, no one would ever want to play with just sound effects. While the music isn’t terrible, was done with it after the first 30 min of play.
     
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  4. stubbieoz

    stubbieoz Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2015
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    Agree that an option for a floating stick would be most welcome.
    I would also like to see some UI options such as;
    Ability to change the location of the mini map and the coin/keys icons. Maybe even an on screen tap option to hide them completely.
    Would also like the option to change the order of the characters icons on the bottom of the screen as well as the location of the inventory icon.

    Guess what I really mean is to have a totally customisable interface. :D
     
  5. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    @Tobester : Oioioi, who thought level cap at 10 is a good idea? Just hit it with my first hero, and still got ~30 skillpoints to go to fill up everything. Not to mention that it looks like I'm maybe halfway through the game by now, at the Cliffs currently. And that I dislike wasting XP on maxlevel characters.
    Can you please up the cap to 20 or whatever you need to have every hero get full points in every skill.

    About the areas I couldn't access earlier:
    Resolved, you just need to be patient :) (you find the key items to open them later in another area)
     
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  6. stubbieoz

    stubbieoz Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2015
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    #26 stubbieoz, Aug 21, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
    It would be nice if you zoom out like this whenever you wanted.

    Now if just the dev would agree :D

    8461DEF3-0731-4D41-897A-2DD900222AC4.jpeg
     
  7. andsoitgoes

    andsoitgoes Well-Known Member

    Is this touch only or does it support controllers? Looks hella interesting even though I stupidly missed the sale.
     
  8. stubbieoz

    stubbieoz Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2015
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    Just tried with Nimbus Steel and no go. Doesn’t mention mfi in the description so I assume it is not an option.

    Just from a personal experience the touch controls are very good for this game (mind you that’s on a large iPad Pro) with the caveat that you have to tap to move rather than a joystick.
    As gmattergames pointed out above, your hand will cover a phones screen, though I just tried it on a iPhone 8 plus and I found it wasn’t too intrusive.
    The battles are the meat of the game and they use a pause to issue commands feature and as such the touch controls work quite well in battles.

    With that being said I wish you could transfer saves between devices.
     
  9. tjb

    tjb Well-Known Member

    Aug 1, 2012
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    Really enjoying this. Couple things.

    It would be great if the button hotspots were a bit bigger. Especially the check mark/cancel buttons in dialogues and such. They seem really sensitive and I miss a lot when I try to hit them.

    Also, I second the befuddlement regarding sound and music. I’d love to keep sounds on but play my own music. As it is, I start music playing, then switch to this app, and the game pauses my music and takes over. I can manually swipe up and hit play in the control center thing, but that mutes all game sounds. Wish I could keep game sounds but play my own music. Seems basic.

    Again, really enjoying so far.
     
  10. Tobester

    Tobester Member

    Aug 20, 2019
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    Hey All,

    Thanks for all of your positive feedback.
    I'm looking at the suggestions you guys have been posting and they look great. Some of them I won't be able to implement, but I'll do what I can to get the others implemented. I'm the only programmer on the project, so you'll have to be patient.

    Toby
     
  11. ThirdMoon

    ThirdMoon Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2014
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    Also enjoying this! Love the variety of characters, tactics, and the touch control implementation. And always impressive when developers actively engage with the community.

    A couple more suggestions: is it possible to make some of the transition animations skippable (such as elevators and statue travel), as they slow the pace of the game and can become mildly frustrating. Similarly, the long cooldown for the arena just forces you to stand around, which isn’t fun- maybe let players grind all they want, if that is how they like to play.
     
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  12. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    @Tobester: No worries, we all understand these kinds of constraints.

    If you don't mind, could you post a short notice of what you'll implement and what not?
    Also, seconding Thirdmoon's suggestion for skippable scenes.

    Gameplay-related:
    1. Postgame content, very nice ;)
    2. Considering the ending: can we expect more storyline (e.g. as DLC) or maybe even a sequel?
    3. Where do I find the "guy from our time in office clothes who lost his memory" again? I forgot to write it down. And now that I have something to help him, I cannot find him anymore.
    4. My favorite combo for endgame so far is the Spacemarine & Healerpriest. Plus whoever else suits my fancy; Red and the Deathknight both are excellent additions. Marine can take care of himself, and Priest makes sure whoever else is along stays alive ;)
     
  13. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

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    @Tobester: Say, could you explain how Defend Skill and Parry work exactly?
    Dodge is pretty obvious, but I'd like to know if there are undodgeable enemy attacks.

    And when can the "orange" skills like Critical Hit or the Monk's Chipunch trigger? Only during regular attacks?
    Or can e.g. Red crit when in his Trueform? Or the Monk crit or Chipunch on one of the Hurricane's attacks?
    Detailed info/answers on these questions will make quite a difference for maximum efficiency/power builds.

    Not that it matters much for regular gameplay, but sometimes I like squeezing even the last drop out of my folks :p
     
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  14. scottsoapbox

    scottsoapbox Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Just 30 minutes in, but fun so far. :cool:

    +1 on separate music and sound effect levels. I mute the music on 99% of games.
     
  15. stubbieoz

    stubbieoz Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2015
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    #35 stubbieoz, Aug 24, 2019
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2019
    Deleted post.
    What is a bug was easily fixed... must remember teleports can get you out of stuck situations.:D

    EDIT;
    Just a question to the fellow completionists out there. ;)
    So far I have been getting characters without any empty spaces in the character list. I have just gone to the swamp area and got the witch. In the character roster I now have one character missing in the list before the witch. I just now got the drunkard, and now there is a character missing after the witch.
    Question without any spoiler answers please.
    Should you be getting characters as they progress down the list or do you sometimes have to skip a character and then go back and get them later.
    I have travelled back to the forest areas but cannot find any missed areas.

    EDIT cont;
    I seem to be getting a pattern.
    Between the Barbarian and Witch one is missing.
    Between the witch and drunk (mercenary) one is missing
    And between the drunk and necromancer ...... well you get the idea.
     
  16. Tobester

    Tobester Member

    Aug 20, 2019
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    Howdy!
    2. We'd definitely look at a sequel. We need to sell more copies of the game first ;)
    3. The suit guy can be found in a sub level of the swamp. You need to go through the portal which can be found by travelling south-east from the warp gate. You should be able to see the portal on the map.

    We're loving the feedback.

    Cheers.

    T
     
  17. Tobester

    Tobester Member

    Aug 20, 2019
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    The characters are listed kinda in the order that they can be found but not entirely. It wouldn't be unusual to have gaps in your list.
     
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  18. Tonks

    Tonks Member

    Aug 26, 2019
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    Hi Nullzone - I'm the other Phase two guy.

    Defend: This is the percent that enemy damage is reduced by when your character is in Defend mode. ( the shield icon in combat ) So if your character's Defend Skill is 50%, ALL incoming damage is reduced by 50%, but only when they are set to Defend. This skill is mainly useful if you want to 'bunker in' while you wait for a special to charge or the item use to recharge. Some characters ( like the swordsman and the knight for example ) have specials that summon independently attacking enhancements, so you can summon those, then set them to Defend.

    Parry: This is the ability to deflect both basic melee attacks and some projectiles. Magic projectiles cannot be Parried, but others, like arrows and daggers can. Most enemy melee attacks can be parried, but the larger, heavier monsters will often have attacks in their moveset that can't be. Melee characters uniquely have a 'counter attack chance' skill. This is the likelihood of following up a parry immediately with a powerful counter attack. Only Melee characters have this ability. If you upgrade this to 100%, it means every successful parry will be followed by a 150% damage attack.

    Dodge: This is similar to parry, but with slightly different dynamics. While a parry will momentarily put the enemy in a vulnerable state and leave them open to a 'free' hit, dodge does not. However, very few enemy moves are undodgeable, so it is more likely to occur. Again, though, Magical projectiles cannot be dodged either.

    NOTE: Parry and dodge can only occur when a character is in a state when they are not doing anything else. So a character cannot dodge at the same time as performing an attack. As a result, fast characters like the Rogue have a much higher likelihood of dodging because her attacks come out really fast, whereas a character like the Dreadknight attacks slowly ( albeit powerfully ) so spends more time in the attack animation.
    I hope that makes sense.

    You are right - the 'orange' skills will only occur as an alternate to a regular attack. So if the character is about to perform a normal attack, there is a percentage chance that will result in a critical or a secondary attack depending on those percentage values.

    No, Red cannot crit in his trueform. His attacks are so powerful in true form he doesn't need to. No, when a special move executes ( as in your monk example ) it only performs that move alone which is separate from the critical or secondary attacks.

    I hope that clarifies some of this stuff a bit more. I love the enthusiasm you have for the game - thanks so much for getting into it.
     
  19. stubbieoz

    stubbieoz Well-Known Member

    Jun 23, 2015
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    @Tonks
    Thanks so much for the detailed explanations. :)

    There were some skills that I was way off with my thinking of how they worked.

    One thing I wanted to thank you guys for in the game was the ring around enemies that warn you that you are about to enter a battle. :cool:
    I find it extremely helpful to let me get my team ready for combat and really adds to my enjoyment of playing.
    Without it I could see myself getting frustrated easily.... much like I do with Final Fantasy games that have random encounters.
     
  20. Tonks

    Tonks Member

    Aug 26, 2019
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    @stubbieoz
    You are very welcome!

    Yes the red rings were a very deliberate thing. I LOVED games like Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast but HATED random encounters. To me it both broke the 'reality' of the game to suddenly warp somewhere different, and was unfair because you could not anticipate battles, or avoid them if you needed to. I always imagined combining the best elements of games like Skies, Grandia, etc. but adding some new ideas. Anyway Battle Hunters is our attempt at doing just that. It is so awesome to hear that you guys are enjoying it.
     
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