@Nullzone Hey there ! Havent seen you since the Planar Conquest boards, thought you were gone from TA ! Ill be buying this game soon, never got to try the first, do you guys recommend the first as much as the second ? Or is it a kind of "once you play the second youll never want to go back to the first" type of thing ?
Hey, nice to see you plopping up here! I'm still around, just been bloody busy the last months with not much time for anything but mostly lurking quietly. Recently went back to play a few games of Planar Conquest, and couldn't even fit a rough write-up in anywhere Back on topic: DR2 is a great improvement/evolution of DR1. But I'd still recommend to play the first one. I liked the story and background, the battles were really good; great game overall, despite some design flaws. You might feel overwhelmed by the insane amount of heroes to choose from though, our good WaveLight went a tad overboard there And I think that DR2 is harder than 1, so the first might be the better place to learn the ropes. If you need some hints for a good party for the first one, check its old thread. We discussed quite a few at length. And for DR2, the first suggestions and discussions started already, expect a lot more in the next days and weeks. Oh, and check the betatest thread for DR1 in upcoming games as well. I just looked for the party discussions, and that thread has a lot of good stuff too. This http://forums.toucharcade.com/search.php?searchid=14939359 should give you all DR threads on TA (no idea how long search links stay valid, though; I just searched for Demon's Rise - apostrophe is important here. Update: Oops, I cannot find the beta thread anymore. Did it go under a different name at first? I cannot remember at all Update 2: Ah, here it is. Yup, different name it was. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=249049
You can play either one in any order. I update the first game with updates that I develop for Demon's Rise 2 so they are both at equivalent levels of quality. I'll be pushing out an update to Demon's Rise 1 at the end of this month with a lot of the suggestions from Demon's Rise 2 players. So really the difference between the two games is setting, story and character choices. There are more character choices in Demon's Rise 1 (30) but I think the story and setting are better in Demon's Rise 2. Both are fun games and well worth playing.
I wouldn't bother with the beta thread for Demon's Rise 1, it is hopelessly out of date. The game evolved so much (and still is evolving) based on real customer feedback that the beta is really irrelevant.
True true. But both threads for DR1 explain a lot of the mechanics, how they came about, and what was your intention behind them. Hard to find the needles in the haystack of 250+ pages though. I just went back and read some of the old stuff. Question: Are the heroes in DR2 more focused in their role, or is that just my impression? I'm specifically referring to this post http://forums.toucharcade.com/showpost.php?p=3545032&postcount=784 where you explained that e.g. the Gnome pulls double duty as shooter and mage. I don't see that with the current chars in DR2, but maybe I'm missing something. That would also easily explain why DR2 feels harder compared to DR1. Currently I see no way to put together an overpowered killer team like my all girls party in DR1. Which is a good thing, I think: much better game balance in 2.
What are these design flaws that you speak of? I am hopelessly dense when it comes to critically looking at the game.
All of that is my personal opinion, so please take it with a grain of salt and look at each for yourself. Live example: I wasn't happy at all with the shop spamming lots of items that are useless or that you cannot afford. Way too tedious to wade through 20+ items to find the one I want and can afford. Very much rechoicing occured here when Wavelight said he'll work on the shop in DR2 (currently it's like I just described. On the other hand, I know that quite a few people enjoy extreme loot hunting, so you might look at this differently. Or, you actually like the stat randomness (described below), since it's the best idea in a roleplaying game ever and D&D has it spot on In DR1 stat gains on levelup were random originaliy, and with a huge range, which I found extremely bad design. Reason: the dice rolls did make or break your game's difficulty, the difference between getting 3 additional attacks for 3 levels straight or only one in 5 levels had an extreme effect on how hard the fights would be. NOTE: I think this is different in DR2: from my levelups so far I think the statgains are fixed, and relatively close together for the different classes; with some variations for flavour, each fitting their class really well. E.g. the Bear gets more counter-attacks, which makes sense for a tank and fire magnet. While a more nimble unit like the Huntress gets more Dodge skill, and the Corsair got the most extra attacks I think - useful for a mixed ranged/melee fighter. Overall, I am VERY impressed with DR2: it feels much more rounded out, balanced, better designed, and looks better to boot. At least on the same level of polish and achievement as DR1 was after much betatesting and updating. I just read back a few pages of the beta thread (~p.80 - 85). I applaud Wavelight for that, very well done. You've come a very long way as game developer, you deliver high-end quality by now.
I just got to campaign 11. You'll probably be impressed by what I did on 10 though. At the end of round 8, I had slaughtered every single one of those attacking me, instead of just "surviving" for the 14 rounds. How many units are on that map? I did lose 2 characters, but considering what I managed, I'm quite happy with myself. I've been playing on normal as well. I'm truly enjoying this game. It's really made me remember why I love SRPGs, and I think you for that. I'm the type that when I finish it, I will be grinding for the ultimate gear as well!
Just hit campaign 13... ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I'm not sure how this'll go, but I may have to go back to grinding lol. EDIT: Nevermind, I passed and made it all the way to 16. Though, I'm gonna grind a bit in the new unlocked quick battles.
You should try to play Demon's Rise 1 again when you have time. It has evolved a lot since you last played. The stat bonuses, difficulty curve, character balance, overall game rules have all been updated massively since initial release. There is actually no difference in the core rules between Demon's Rise 1 and Demon's Rise 2. The only features / enhancements from Demon's Rise 2 that I haven't yet ported back to DR1 are (1) the mission objectives and (2) the ability to replay campaign levels. I'll port both of those as well fairly soon.
Yep, got delayed today because of some Xcode issues. I am doing a bit more testing and it's looking good. I will be submitting it to Apple tomorrow and they typically turn it around in a day. Also, I forgot to mention in the earlier change log that I also tweaked the touch sensitivity on the iPad so now the default rotate speed is more appropriate and not as sensitive.
I see. The shop is indeed messy to go through but it is manageable. The potential improvements to the shop is something to be excited about. I didn't know that the stats gains were random in DR1; I can see how some people might be turned off by that especially they can influence the difficulty of battles.
That's actually really impressive. I remember that I barely scraped through that level. Spoiler When I played it, I basically had to use a lot of diversion tactics and shamelessly let half the enemy army slice apart Morkarn. I managed to hold out only by using the large cottage as a line of sight blocker and killing enemies as they appeared around the corner and then retreating. I actually intended for the player to abandon the wounded Morkarn in this battle and so gave him lots of hit points to soak up before death. Cool ... thanks. The good thing is you can up the difficulty and revisit older campaign levels and patrols. Extreme difficulty is much, much harder but you get a lot more gold and higher quality items.
I should point out that they aren't any more ... they follow the same system as DR2. Extra attacks, which are the most useful stat, occur only at levels 3, 6 and 9. Other stats are random but tailored to the character type. Wizards are more like to get extra action points for their spells, archers are more likely to get ranged attack skill bonuses, fighters are more likely to get extra counter attacks and such.
I assume each difficulty has increased varying levels of rewards then? So if I play some on hard now, I could benefit from it now?
Yep, you get more gold and either more items or a higher chance of high value items ... I don't recall which. But there is definitely a bigger reward in finishing a level on a harder difficulty.
Here's preview of the Cataphract, which will be the 15th (and probably) final player character class to be added. She's a female knight / horse archer. Cataphracts were basically heavy cavalry from ancient / eastern kingdoms that also employed bows. She'll be armed with a recurved bow and longsword and will wear medium to heavy armour. I'm not yet sure of her focus other than being a well-rounded character that can play either a frontline melee role or an archer role reasonably well. I need some ideas on what her skills should be. I think I'd like her to be relatively "normal" and not have too much magic or divine powers. Something a bit like the corsair but different enough to differentiate the two. Let me know your ideas. cataphract wip 2 by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr cataphract by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr Story-wise, I see Cataphracts being the "knights" of the northern tribes. They would be the elite cavalry and thus would probably see themselves as superior to the beastmen, tribesman and other foot sloggers. Not sure if there might be a good theme in that ... need to give it some thought. In the mean time, I'll focus on optimizing the character model and fine tuning her animations. I want to give her a lot of arcing / sweeping sword strikes that suit her curved sword.
Yeah, I guess Nullzone was referring to the earlier versions. I've started playing DR 1 months after release and the stats increase do look regular to me.
