I am enjoying the game and I want to thank DungeonPlunder for being so active here. It is quite clear that an already very good game is sure to get only better due to the developer's interactions here.
I just picked up the game this evening, and it's a lot of fun. I echo LordGek's comments based on the brief time I've spent with the game. Enemies doing unpleasant/unexpected things would be a nice touch. I'd also like to make a suggestion to add a tavern/pub in town where one could listen to rumors/tips; something fun to read that updates depending on how far along in the adventure the player is. Wandering shopkeepers/non-hostile encounters would be nice as well. Maybe a chance to find some journal entries/flavor notes fleshing out the world lore a bit? (early impressions; for all I know, some of what I mentioned could be in the game to be discovered in later areas) This game, along with King Cashing 2 & Pixel People, has made my treadmill time a lot less dreary. Keep up the good work!
Game Impressions I'm still very addicted to the game and will feebly attempt to explain the combat system which is the core of this whole game. While it uses slot wheels, it makes more sense to view this as Fantasy Video Poker without straights and flushes. Each wheel has some 9 possible symbols (not sure of the exact number) with each symbol representing a basic game statistic (damage, armor, health, mana, etc.). Each turn you spin your 5 wheels, decide which symbols you want to hold, and then respin the rest. To get the benefit of any of the symbols you need at least 2 of that symbol showing with more than that minimum 2 (upto 5) giving the player even bigger and bigger effects. Getting 5 of any 1 symbol usually means a big effect and some bonus cash (like 5 hearts would mean huge healing AND a nice cash bonus). Of the wheel's 9 symbols (again, just a guess), 3 are unique to only your class, 3 are common symbols usable to all classes, and 3 that you can't use (so as a fighter, even if you got 5 mana symbols, they'll give you no effect). So if new to using a class remember to check that "?" in the bottom right to see which symbols are useable by your class.
Thanks for the explanation. I guess that that part is clearer now - what is still obscure to me is how much damage will I hit the enemy with depending on the slot item being matched, how much damage will the enemy hit me with, and how much the shields factor into it. For instance, I matched 4 large axes with my warrior, I am level 2, I would have expected to have hit a bit more than 4 damage, but that's what happened. And sometimes enemies hit me with 1 damage, sometimes 3, but I'm not sure what determines it... Can enemies miss altogether as well? Those are some of my questions in relation to the combat, but hopefully it'll become clearer with time.
Each enemy seems to just have a random damage range. I think they may also have some amount of armor that reduces the damage you inflict. The final damage amount seems a bit less than indicated by the reference screen. Or else there's some kind of scaling involved. When it says that you are hit for X damage, that gets reduced by your armor first (reducing your armor by the damage absorbed), so it can be confusing to see that your HP didn't go down. This could be described more clearly, but it's very straightforward once you get used to it. And what you really care about, in practice, is reduction in your HP+Armor total. A minor complaint: the description of Berserk when you use it (and probably the other skills) doesn't change when you improve its values by leveling it up. The on screen movement is slightly clunky, but it's not really much of an issue because most of the time is spent in the battles and not in movement. It might be nice to have some kind of auto-battle for dispatching weak foes. Of course, that's risky in a game with permadeath.
My first post is to congratulate the developer for this very nice game; i didn't know anything about it untill it got released and it already has me hooked! It has a lot of potential and hope the developer will continue to improve it; bought the deluxe edition to show my appreciation. There are a couple fo small issues already highlighted by other members that i'm sure will be solved in the next update (text of some skills not updating when you improve them, single axe doing less damage than double axe, need for more character infos etc.). Now back to my level 9 warrior to try to finish the game!
I missed that, noted. Starting weapon is pretty weak - as a warrior you'll also do more when you pair up 2 small axes and 2 large axes rather than 4. That's intended as an incentive to keep small axes. Enemies will never miss - they do have a damage range though. It will be displayed in the combat screen soon to avoid the confusion. Thanks to everyone who purchased the game and another thumbs up for the deluxe editions owners!
I'm currently on my best run, at level 6. I am out of guys my level to fight, so I fear my remaining time is short. I'm just wondering if this is by design.
That should not happen. You might have missed the dungeon? the game it spawns it a little further than the town - it will look like a golden door over a sand dune.
Ah ok, I see it. It is just next to a higher-leveled enemy, so I wasn't checking to see what it was. Edit: ok, well, I went through the dungeon, which had few enemies in it, so I didn't quite level, but figured I could handle a level 7. I exited the dungeon and was forced to fight the enemy next to me, which turned out to be a level 10 dragon whelp. I put up a valiant fight...I think he was down to about half health. I had two scrolls; I used one but it wouldn't let me use the second.
I sent an update last friday that will have your character no longer blocked on a dungeon exit to prevent that kind of situations. Approval should be soon now, it's been 6 days.
Small axes update: There's indeed a bug there .. but it's actually the double axes that were hitting for too much Good catch folks. Since the game was tested under these conditions I will be careful with the fix to not lower the warrior overall damage capacity as a side-effect.
Thanks for the update. Seriously, I'd consider keeping it, just switch the damage between small axes and large, so the small axes do more (and there's a reason to keep them). Ideally I'd switch the graphics instead and have the single axes paired with shields (doing less damage than the large), but I know you didn't do the graphics yourself, so that may not be an option.
It would be nice if instead of the red X you could display the actual level of the higher-level enemy, as a red numeral over the character. There's a big difference between taking on an enemy that's 1 level higher, and 3 or 4 levels higher.
Just started playing this. Random map generation seems to need a little work. My mambas are completely surrounded my trees and hills so I can't reach them to complete that first quest.
One time I thought some enemies were blocked off but there was a dungeon door that you could walk right over into that otherwise closed area.
Yup, just found a couple there so I was able to complete the quest. Then I died shortly after Anyway, minor crash bug also. With no existing saves, hit create, then back out, then hit play (button should not even be there since no game was created) = crash.
I was playing last night and reached level 5, but then I got cocky and I was going for matching coins during one battle, I lost track of my health and paid for it! But then on my next character I used the inheritance to boost my gear and quickly reached level 5 again. Pretty cool. Can someone tell me what artifacts do? I devoted my early adopter rune to +50% artifacts but I'm not sure I've ever had one. I have a minor rune also that I think I scribed into +10% health.
