So you never used the mind control ability for that Illusionist or any other Illusionist or Mage Hunter in your party? That's odd ... must be something unique to that level. I'll take a closer look at it and see what's going on. I'll look into the 2nd ability and his hast ability. Thanks for the heads up.
Just to clarify, did you say that the bug happens when the Chronomancer fails an ability and the action camera zooms in? I'm trying to reproduce it but not having any luck so far.
I don't notice when the action camera zooms in but yes, usually after it fails. Might also be unique party composition as probable cause? Two centaurs, two rangers, a dragon slayer, and Chronomancer. Basically everyone uses their abilities, I use Chronomancer to recover AP and he's stuck afterwards.
I'll try with that same composition ... very strange bug. Does it happen on just one particular level or does it happen on any level? I'm not that happy with the chronomancer's abilities to be honest so might make some changes to them ... both in effect, targeting method and visuals. Perhaps doing so might fix whatever is happening here. Before I do, I'll keep trying to reproduce it. If you could perhaps record a video of it happening and then upload that video to youtube or something, that would be really helpful?
If it happens again, will do so. Don't sweat it. I think this counts as a minor bug. I suspect it's level-related since I did the "restart level" to reproduce it, rather than on a different map. Thanks.
No worries ... just a quick question, does this happen at the start of a level? I'm wondering if perhaps this is the same bug where sometimes at the start of a level the game doesn't respond to clicks on character or on tiles but you can still perform abilities and you can still click on UI stuff. I'm hoping that I might have that bug fixed because I made some tweaks and I also upgraded my game engine to the latest version and I haven't run into it in a while. Might have been an issue with the underlying game engine code.
Just a quick update guys regarding progress. 1 - The halfling character is done and assigned to one of the pre-built teams. I'm testing him now with a play through of that team (Ashara's Chosen). I'm liking him so far .. he's a sneaky, knife throwing thief character with some cool support abilities. 2 - I'm working on tightening up the sound and adding things like footsteps, character voices when selected, audio warning for when new enemies arrive on a map, better sounds for explosions and stuff like that. I think audio is an area that would benefit from a bit more attention. 3 - Working on improving UI stuff like adding tooltips for when the HUD circles that shows life / attacks / action points, etc. on the bottom left are held down. I'm putting some indications on the ability tool tip to indicate things like cool down, limited use, etc. After I get the above round of tweaks / polish done ... I'm going to focus heavily on finishing the new content levels. So most likely patch 1.4 will have the above stuff and then patch 1.5 will have the new first content update.
@WaveLightGames I've been with you from version 1.0, but I have to recommend you check out a game called "The Last Warlock" for iPad. This is a TBS game, using Minecraft-like block graphics, that does absolutely everything right. From camera to saving to mechanics and depth, I just can't say enough about it. I may sound like a shill, but I swear to you that I'm not. It's just my all-time favorite fantasy TBS in App Store history. I think the graphic style turned off some more hardcore types, but this app puts every single Warhammer TBS title to shame, with its attention to detail, yet it's incredibly easy to pick up. I say all this only because I like Demon's Rise a lot, but I feel like it could be so much more in terms of performance, variety and structure. I would recommend a spin with The Last Warlock to any solo developer / designer, as a gold standard for the genre.
Thanks ... I'll check it out. But with all due respect, I actually don't think there's an issue with performance with Demon's Rise. I've spent massive amounts of attention on optimizing graphics for mobile and I think it does very well in that area. I haven't personally come across a game that has the graphical bells and whistles that Demon's Rise has that also runs as smoothly. I agree there's room for improvement in other areas like game balance and overall polish (tutorial, sounds, etc.) but I don't think graphical performance is an area that the game does poorly in. If you are running into performance issues or low frame rates, can you let me know which device you're using and on which graphics settings? It may that you need to just switch off some graphics settings or perhaps I need to prevent dynamic shadows from being used on earlier Metal devices like the iPhone 5S, for example.
Speaking of sound. I've noticed that even with the game music off and the sound effects on low volume, the character voices are always the same loud volume. They aren't contrôlée by in-game volume. Until you get to 0 sfx volume then they stop
Just popping in to second Wavelight about the performance. DR runs absolutely great on my Air1, no issues with graphics at all. Sure, Metal support plays a huge role; as does the more limited view distance compared to e.g. XCOM - which has massive performance problems on larger levels. But: all of that is a conscious design decision by Wavelight (call it optimisation if you will), and required lots of hard work. I like my eyecandy just as much as I like good gameplay. Something like the mentioned Last Warlock will never fly with me, simply because personally I find it ugly (random rant: and don't get me started on all that retro 8bit pixel crap. I grew up when that was all we had (4 color CGA? Awesome! It's *color*! ) , and boy am I glad those days are over). Even with the Unity Asset Store, and all those nifty tools you have these days to make your life easier, great looking visuals are never easy and lots of work. Structure and variety? Hhmm, maybe yes, somewhat. I still want a stage selector for the Patrol Levels, and a way to swap party members in and out. But 25 chars and I-don't-know-how-many monsters with overall pretty good AI make for a lot of variety in my book. But performance? Unless we misunderstand each other, this is the one thing you absolutely cannot complain about.
Think I've been experiencing a similar bug to not being able to select other character. It seems to start as I select an ability - to check range or whatever - but it removes me AP as if I've cast / failed it. But does neither. Now I can't switch characters or do anything. I'll see if I can reproduce. I've seen it happen a few times with wake of the Phoenix (pyro)
You're right, but it wasn't my point. You said it yourself; you haven't come across a game that has all the graphical bells and whistles... Etc... The phrase "Bells and whistles" doesn't originally carry a positive connotation, you know. Indeed, it's often a parallel of "flash over substance". I'll just reiterate that, IMHO, no one has topped Sonic Sloth's game. Not EA, not Slitherine, not Rodeo.. So take it in the spirit in which the remark was offered; true reverence of a singular approach.
I would say that camera and aggravating panning features fall under performance. I've yet to find satisfaction with the camera. I prefer it like paper; the spot you touch remains under your finger, and you drag the desired view area toward you. This style seems like there's an over-sensitive, invisible "virtual analog stick" under my finger that dictates the panning acceleration. I would also submit that small details like in-battle crafting, foraging & hunting, scouts, ability to pick up and use weapons in the field, improvised weapons, terrain deformation & advantages, riding mounted units, huge outdoor / indoor maps.... These things fall under the heading of depth, structure and variety. And I'll take them. There's an immersion that comes with those things that no level of graphical intensity can ever furnish.
Nitpick the camera controls are user interface, not performance issues. Sluggish or stuttering camera movement would be performance. But that just as a sidenote. I fully agree: while Wavelight already did a lot, the camera handling does need some improvement still. But only to get it from "ok" to "great"; not from "unusable" to "ok". And all the things like crafting or mounts that you mention are great, but not "core" functionality for a squad tactics game. I sure would welcome them, but they are even more to design, implement and balance. What you describe ("DR + lots of other cool stuff") would be an awesome game, and I'd play the hell out of it. But a completely different one from DR as it is now. Not to mention *much* more work to bring to life. Now it gets a bit harder to explain, but I'll try anyways: I played text-based MUDs for over 20 years (still would if I had more time) , and never missed shiny graphics with them. Roleplaying, and activities/content like you list always were more important for me there, or I wouldn't have played MUDs. But for a game like DR, I definitely want my eyecandy too. And everyone has their own ideas about what that means exactly, and what the minimum acceptable level is. Yes, I'm weird but I'd actually prefer to play Last Warlock as a text-only MUD-style game, than look at those ugly (to me) blocks all day. We seem to have different preferences. And you know what? That's perfectly okay
Well, I'm a little long in the tooth, myself. I go back to the days of the Odyssey. When I think of the gold standard of squad-based strategy games, only one thing leaps to mind; X-COM: UFO Defense. Destructible terrain w/ height advantage, picking up dropped items / weapons, overwatch, cover, posture, varied outdoor / indoor environments... Not to mention Jagged Alliance! In fact, I wouldn't call DR a squad tactics game at all. More simply a TBS, more in common w/ FF:T than any of the aforementioned. But as I initially told the designer, my suggestion to have a look @ TLW was more because of all the things it gets right; not because of anything DR gets wrong. So you can put away your +4 flaming digit of defense!!
This should be fixed in patch 1.3. The camera has been adjusted to remove the micro movements and this makes the control a lot better and more like what you describe. Hopefully Apple will approve / release patch 1.3 this week some time. That makes more sense ... I was confused by your point about performance, thinking you meant FPS and battery drain and stuff like that. Those elements are definitely great and I hope to gradually add some of them to Demon's Rise and more of them to new games built on the DR engine. I think every game is going to have elements that other lack. For example, DR has a morale system and cover system that are both lacking in Warhammer Quest and Deathwatch. Those games will certainly have some things that DR lacks and so on. DR will be improved and built upon over the next 6 months or so before I use that core game to work on the next game. I'll take a look at TLW and see what design elements I can shamelessly steal.
I'm not suggesting those features are connected to performance. But I do associate a jerky camera w/ performance. I was merely suggesting that visual bells & whistles should take a backseat to depth of gameplay.
I agree ... but I just think that every game is going to have different depths of gameplay. I'm sure there are areas where DR does things that TLW may not touch on. Can I ask whether TLW has a cover system, morale system and anywhere near as many character choices as DR?
@icepulse: no worries, I'll put away the flaming finger of defense (pretty good one by the way, made me laugh) , and bring out my "old dude hat, +2 vs. young whippersnappers" instead I think we are pretty much on the same page actually. Offtopic: Do you mean that Odyssey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnavox_Odyssey ? You really played on that thing? It's 2 years older than I am... I only know it from hearsay, never even saw one. My first conscious memory of videogames is playing the original Pong and Asteroids arcade cabinets when I was 5 or 6. We've come a long way, haven't we? I'll never manage to fully wrap my head around the fact that my son grows up with taking color TV, internet, touchscreen tablets etc. for granted; instead of being amazed by the progress of the last 35 years.
