Quick update on the next patch: - Added the toggle in the options screen to show or hide corpses. - Added a toggle in the options menu to enable low RAM mode, which uses further compressed textures. - Added a toggle for global fog, which can now be enabled / disabled independently of all other special particle effects. - Touching the character portrait in bottom left of HUD now brings up character stat window.
I checked the Reaper level and I can't find any issues with loading the level or loading a saved game from within my game development engine. Therefore, it's probably a RAM related issue in that the that level might have just too many enemies or it might have some large texture files eating up memory. I'm going to check for any rogue texture files that weren't compressed. I think the game is starting to push the limits of 1GB RAM devices as I'm currently testing the Android version on a 3GB RAM LG G4 and have not ran into a single crash over 20+ hours of gameplay. Therefore, I'm going to add a low RAM device option in the graphics options that will compress the textures and hopefully free up a little RAM so that the game won't crash as much on the heavier levels. I'll also go into that Reaper level and remove a few of the bad guys. That level has just an insane amount of enemies now that I look at it. What I might suggest is the following: 1 - Go to the options and disable all graphics options like Dynamic Shadows, Special FX, etc. 2 - Go to the multi-tasking window and close all apps before launching the game. Let me know if that helps. The next update should have the low memory option that should help.[/QUOTE] both 1 & 2 didn't work. no worries - my pro should arrive by the weekend
Looks like there might be something wrong with that level. On my 3GB Android device, the level loads fine and runs fine. However, if I quit in the middle of the game and then try to load from a mid-battle save, the mid-battle save doesn't load properly. It's strange that this only occurs on the device and not in my development engine. I will look into it in more detail and hopefully figure it out.
I think I found the bug. The game wouldn't load a mid-battle save properly if one of the units was affected by a persistent ability that hurt it and caused it to die that turn. I think I've fixed it now but will do further testing to be sure.
Hey guys, just spent some time on GUI enhancements. 1 - Added nice fade in / fade out transitions for all pop up menus and screens. Looks a lot nicer than just having the screen appear and disappear instantly. 2 - Added a new design for the on-screen camera control button on the far right of the screen. Check it out. It works the same way, just looks prettier. New HUD by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr Also, made lots of minor changes, balance tweaks and bug fixes. All pretty minor stuff. One question for you all, I'm starting to feel that damage spells that do large area damage like the High Wizard's Mana Implosion and Pyromancer's Flames of the Phoenix spell to be too effective. I'm thinking of toning down the damage they do and possibly adding a cool down. The combination of covering a wide area, doing loads of damage at higher levels and having no cooldown allows these spells to just wipe out half the battlefield. Also, I'm considering making characters start the battle with 0 action points rather than full action points. This would mean that you would have to wait a turn or two to cast the more powerful abilities as you build up action points. What do you guys think of that in theory? The same would apply to enemies so you wouldn't see really strong abilities from them either on the first turn.
yes tone down the AE damage. if you start the battle with 0 action points, would it affect items with +Ap? also i think you need more skill diversity for the chars. Alot of them do the same thing but different damage or range if you don't mind hearing my ideas, i'll start creating a list. If it's too late for this game, use it for your next
It would just be that heroes would start out with 0 action points plus whatever random amount of action points they generate for the turn instead of starting with their action points meter filled to 100%. So if you have items that increase AP, then the maximum AP would be higher but they might start the battle with 0% or 50% filled, for example. Yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts! I'm happy to tweak the existing characters and also the feedback will help me refine ideas for the next game. Please list out your thoughts and I will take them on and see what I can do for the next update. I'm personally thinking that the Golem and Centaur need a re-design and the Pyromancer could probably do with a bit more variety in spell types. I still want to keep characters somewhat focussed so they have defined strengths and weaknesses but definitely want to add some variety and improve them.
Also, I've added the "Collect All Gold" automatically when pressing the Leave Area button. Should be in the next update.
I totally agree about the AOE problem. 1st turn my grey wizard and skeleton warrior basically wipe the enemy with their AOE effects. Something to prevent the 1st turn blitz or to reduce the damage output is needed.
Agreed, by scaling the affect of ability by character level, the damage spells have gotten too powerful. I'm experimenting with lowering the damage they do by level and also starting off all characters with empty action point totals. That way the more powerful spells will have to be cast in slightly later turns. Will keep tweaking until I find the right balance. The game is much more interesting and challenging if the various options are kept equally viable.
Hey Dev, if a summon kills an enemy who gets the exp? summon or the master? I know from your previous posts for charmed monsters, the master gets the exp. I think if you decide to start the units with zero Ap, you should leave the +AP items alone. You would really devalue the those items, if you did. Also you mentioned you want to improve the Centaur? Tho he has good movement and missile range, it doesn't offset the fact that he's not good at either - Melee/Range. He needs a good couple of abilities to prove that he's useful in a party. Are you able to code passive abilites into the game? Maybe give him +bonus to hit to party member that is adjacent to him. Just a thought. I'll have more ideas or comment after this weekend. I got my new ipad last night. Game looks great! But it still doesn't load the reper level. I know the fix it's in the patch
The XP is lost if the creature is killed by a non-player party member. However, players get XP from hitting an enemy, wounding an enemy, missing an enemy (learn from mistakes) and failed / passed abilities. So you don't have to be the one that kills a big enemy to get the XP for it. Yeah, the items would stay the same. If it does feel right to gradually build up AP over a couple of turns, I may modify the AP regeneration rate. Not sure, need to playtest heavily. I can definitely do passive buffs to adjacent units. He has a higher level ability that does something like that, if I recall. I think he has a war cry ability that gives extra attacks to adjacent allies, I think. I look forward to hearing them. Don't worry about whether I can code it or not, just hearing raw ideas will be very helpful.
I know I'm late to the party, but I just picked this up a couple days ago, hoping to find something that can fill the void that's going to be left after I finish my latest runthrough of FFT, and I really think this is going to be it. I love the squad based tactics, I love the cover/moral influences from XCOM... I think it's friggin fantastic how you incorporate the characters into the world/war/battles... the battle mechanics/spell system/item & loot system is awesome... The camera did throw me off at first, but by the end of my first battle, I had a good grip on it, and haven't had a problem with it at all. I'm not really a gamer who cares about graphics, so I can't say too much about these. Nothing has struck my eye funny, and it's very clear that a lot of time, effort and thought has gone into crafting the massive number of enemies and all of the characters, and the graphics do a very good job of pulling you into the world. I know you're still working on this, but as I play, I can't help but get excited about what you might come up with in the future. Hopefully another game is in the cards for ya. But this... I'm going to have quite a ball with it, for quite a long time, I can already tell.
Thanks ... I'm really glad you're liking it so far. Also, thanks for the detailed and insightful review you gave on the app store. The next update will be a good one. It will add 2 new playable characters and a lot of game play / balance enhancements and some UI refinements. The big addition will be counter attacks that occur if you survive an enemy attack. It adds a whole new tactical dimension and a lot of the character abilities have been modified to take advantage of this new mechanic. By the way, on your review you mentioned that you're stuck with the staring line up of heroes. This isn't true any more. You can go to the tavern and switch around your player party for a fee of 2000 gold, which isn't too much. The next game for this year will be another medieval fantasy game built on the same engine. A more story-focussed RPG with specific win / loss objectives and a slightly modified combat system. Lots of new enemies to fight and a slightly darker theme. After that, I want to make a sci-fi game similar to Deathwatch but just much, much better. So think this game but with guns, lasers, robots, grenades, psychic powers and so on. Most likely will be humans and allied aliens on a big spaceship against hell spawn. A bit like a mix of Space Hulk / Deathwatch and Doom. Gameplay changes will focus more on: - pinning enemy down due to suppressive fire and then assaulting them once pinned - holding strategic points for victory & other very specific missions - hacking defense systems during battle to gain control of turrets - deploying mobile shield generators to effectively modify terrain So expect Demon's Rise 2 in Q3 of this year. The player characters are done and the quest levels are around 50% built.
Ah, thank you for that! I had no idea... =o/ I really need to make sure I check out 100% of everything I can before I write 'reviews' in the AppStore. Sorry about that. I've changed my AppStore writeup - hope it changes soon. The future sounds like it's looking very bright. Because of the whole iOS 8 hangup, I didn't get into Deathwatch until about 2 weeks ago, but so far, I'm loving it. I think a mixture of that with your style and other stuff (especially those psychic powers!!!) would be fan-farick'n-tastic... and ALREADY with a sequel to this!?!? I mean, I know it was released mid-late last year, but that's just crazy, especially considering all that you've added to this post-release. You have definitely got another day 1 supporter for whatever future games you wind up releasing. =oD
Hey guys, sorry for lack of updates. Been travelling for work and have been heavily jet lagged. I did work on the camera controls and did make some significant improvements. Looking forward to showing them to you all.
I've found the difficulty curve drops at quest 4. I think it's because there are a lot of low level enemies like goblins. I'm going ro create some new enemies that are stronger and use them to replace the weaker creatures here. Otherwise, I've improved the touch screen controls a lot. Also, working on improving the action camera with a zoom in effect.
Hey guys, Here's a preview of the enemies that will be part of the next patch. These guys are stronger enemies that will make quests 4 and 5 much tougher. My play throughs of these quests are finding they are too easy because there are a lot of low level enemies in them that just occupy space. New Enemies by Rajpreet Dhillon, on Flickr In the picture, you have: - Orc Champion: Big version of the Orc warrior / berserker. - Skeleton Crossbowman: A new skeleton missile unit armed with a crossbow. - Ratkin Guard: An elite Ratkin with a halberd. Long range and lots of attacks. - Ratkin Elite: Another new Ratkin warrior armed with a 2-handed sword. - Ratkin Grand Priest: A new Ratkin wizard (the one with the glowing purple hands). - Ratkin Grand Shaman: Another new Ratkin wizard with some powerful spells.
My impressions #2 part 1 Another weekend playing. Here are my thoughts - Party members i'm using - Party 1# - Still stuck on that reaper lord level, i think i got party to level 5. Pyromancer - in terms of pure casters, probably the best damage dealer. His 4th spell is pretty awesome. If you want to add diversity to him, he could use a wall of fire spell Storm Seer - very well balanced caster. I didn't get her 4th-5th abilities. She can chain her low level heal spell which is very nice. Her 2nd spell is very handy Assassin - Must have. Paladin - very balanced 2nd line fighter. For skill diversity - how about giving him a shield throwing attack, similar to Marvel's Captain America? it zigzags hostiles in the area, while its on cool down, he loses armor temporarily(shield is out of his hands) Dragon Hunter - A melee powerhouse. Him or the Skely Captain is another must have. Gnome - He's a pretty decent range guy. His grenade attack is a pretty good low level ability. I didn't find his later ones that good. I will probably switch him out with the ranger or that cannon guy. Party 2# - I made it to week 5. I was afraid this party would be inferior to my main party. But was i wrong. Golem - He starts out very slow and pretty useless as a damage dealer. But once you get to his 4th level spell - he cleans house. I actually think he needs a nerd there. Tree Giant - He's another slow starter, but super useful later on. My complaint with him, is that he has two AC buffing spells that are way too similar. Take away one of those - and give him a shield of torn spells - reflect % damage back to melee attacks. And seperate that healing spell into two. One for healing hp, one for regenerating AP Duelist - She's a decent 2nd line fighter. Not much of a damage dealer, but she can chain self healing, has high movement and high dodge(?) makes her pretty useful. Her 4th, 5th ablities sound good too. I originally had the mage hunter and the samurai here, but i found them a little lacking. Shadow Elf Witch - I started out with the high wizard as my only pure caster initially and boy did I struggle. But once I added the Witch, things got much easier for me. I really like her. Very well rounded. Great buff spell, cheap summons, and nasty damage ( i love to spam summons to draw enemy attacks ). Maybe limit the summons for 2 turns duration only or two per battle. Archer - very well balanced range attacker. Don't really care for her 4th, 5th abilities, but her 2nd and 3rd is very nice. Early on she was my most powerful character. I think her 1st ablity stacks with the 2nd or 3rd ? Skely Champion - This guy is badass. Even if he's nerfed, i think he's must have. I would remove one of his powerful AE spells(he has too many), and give him a lower level ability like charm undead. Or maybe give him a HP leeching attack for several turns.
My impressions #2 part 2 Other thoughts Samurai/Centaur - these 50%melee/50%range chars need a boost with good abilities. They just don't do enough damage to justify their spot in the party. Pure melee or range chars are so much more useful - just on raw damage alone. The Gnome is a good example. Minotaur - I still think Demonic Possession is a little too harsh. 15% failure rate for other chars mean only a lost of AP. BUT for him its a lost of AP + Stun - that's BAD if you need to rely on him to take out a big enemy High Wizard - I had him with my 2nd party initially, and he keep dying. Problem with him is that his spells (except for implosion) are not good enough for a CASTER. He needs to BIG boost. Maybe for starters, his default range attack, he is immune to shield barriers - since his attack seems to weave around in the air anyway Mage Hunter - Another original member of my 2nd party. I thought he was just 'meh'. He wasn't that good at disabling opponent's AP. Maybe i gave up on him too soon. Regardless, for ability diversity - he needs an anti-magic spell. Maybe give him a passive ability to cancel/protect of spells to units that is adjacent to him. Illusionist/Chromomancer - I really wanted to try these two casters. But their ablities look very weak - that's why i chose the witch Chromancer needs a mass time stop spell to compensate for his lack of AE damaging spell. Maybe give the Illusionist a summon spell that micmic a powerful enemy of the battlefield (exception - boss)? More ideas - a charging attack for tank character. He ends up at the ends of the attack. For the Minotaur? - a short range AE taunt ability for one of the tanks? Maybe the Giant? - a druid char? that can turn into a good melee or range. Can heal/buff in natural form, but no abilities either shapeshift forms. - a frost mage with slow movement spells? ie blizzard? - a flying character. One that cannot be blocked by other characters. - a fear ability - makes enemies run aways in fear for a turn - how about a self resurrecting ability for one of the tanks. Once a battle only. GUI - How about adding a Wait button? This end the turn on that char. On huge maps, with NPC, this will be very useful. - How about an undo move command? - The bandage skills on one of the dwarf char is bugged. I almost never see it work. - When my party levels up, on a couple of occassions i see only 5 increases in stats, instead of 6. Is that a bug? happened to a few characters. BUT not very often. I think the mage hunter was one of them effected. - Overall i think 15% skill failure is pretty high. I think it should be lowered to 10%. Only the most powerful spells should be 15%. And there shouldn't be too many of those. - Biggest imbalance of this game, is that too many melee have AE damaging abilities. Almost to the point it's better to play melee character over casters, because casters are so fragile. Pardon my writing. I know it's not good. But i hope you find these thoughts useful! thanks
