Yep, hopefully get a lite version together in a few weeks, ideally to coincide with the next update I'll be adding a flashing red background as suggested, that should draw a bit more attention to the low health, it's true that when you're on a matching spree and there's no sound the flashing health bottle isn't really obvious Yeah, the sales have improved tremendously as a result of the TA review, interestingly though while DR's been bobbing around the #10 RPG spot in US, it seems to be going really strong in Japan, right now at #2 in puzzle and #4 in RPG! Not sure why Japan
Good to hear, you really deserve it. BTW...did you happen to at least consider the 'random stories' implementation (as opposed to the random intros only)? Another suggestion, if I may: it would be cool when you die and you're seeing the chart with you previous efforts, to be able to click on the character and see exactely which upgrades/level up I took (now you only see the icons)....just to focus on them for beating my own scores Is it possible? Are those data saved? Thanks!
Sure, the random stories have been suggested a few times now (I think someone brought it up back when the game first came out) and I think they'd make a great alternate play mode. I've got an ever-growing list of ideas that sound like they'd improve the game and it's on the list, so hopefully you'll see some incarnation of that not in the next update but one of the following ones More info on dead characters is also something that'll definitely make an appearance, although right now that kind of data's just not present in the save games. I really like the way roguelikes show lots and lots of details about the past character you've played, and yeah being able to click on a character in the local scoreboard and see exactly what upgrades, skills and perks you took that helped you get to a high level (or not) would be pretty cool. Also seeing if there was a special monster around when you died, I imagine for a lot of people the spiky enemy is the last thing they see before the red screen
Curse you spiky skull! My latest "tactic" with them is to get their attack down to 1 with blunting and then just leave them there =P Or hit Teleport the moment one shows up, heh. I actually had a game awhile ago where I left a weakened Alpha up just to group all the skulls together. It was sorta-kinda effective, but you run out of swords nearby...maybe need to keep a weakened magnetic one next to it...hmm...okay that's just silly. One small suggestion, after the potential number of bonuses on an item upgrade is capped at two, it might be good if the 2-bonus items were in a different color? On the one hand it might take the challenge away from actually noticing an item has two bonuses, but on the other it might increase that feeling of "hey look what i just found". I think the Diablo-WoW color scheme system does have a psychological component to it. (I think a case could also be made, on the same "look what i just found" reasoning, for very rare 3-bonus items...but in the order of 1% of the time. That'd be fun). Another thing, it's interesting how some abilities are percentage based while others are on a point system. You constantly have to keep taking blunting or spikes for example to keep it relevant, whereas you can stack life leech to a decent percent and then never have to worry about it again. Same problem with durability, +10% is awesome no matter when you get it. You're probably aware WoW gets around this by having a fairly complex "rating" system where the amount of rating you need scales based on your level, so 5 points of life leech might equal 10% leech at level 5 and only 2% at level 25 (so your upgrades decay in quality as you advance, just as the effectiveness of spikes/blunting does). Not saying that's an appropriate answer for this type of game, but yeah just thinking out loud.
What does spike do? I have some items that give +5 spike (I think!) and I see each skull getting spiked every turn but I don't actually know what it does.
You just answered to your question! Spike on your armor damage the skulls by the number of Spike Upgrade you have! Btw, just got another idea : Critical Hit! So if you match up swords, you could have 5% of critical hit on the skulls, which would do 1.5x damage than the normal. This system could add more skills (boost your chance of getting a Critical Hit) and upgrade on swords (10% of chance, 15%, etc.). I don't know if it would be nice implemented in this game, but would add much more strategy in the game!
Sweet, I'm glad to see someone else beat my score. I'll definitely PM you, but I suspect I know what you did and I've already posted most of the general strategies. Still, I am a **little** puzzled by your score. I found that the harder bosses, such as The Boss, scale in such a manner that they get ever stronger compared to you. I quit on "hard" but on "harder" I actually died. Anyway, gratz & PM coming.
How many turns is that? Its sort of difficult to get past level 7ish, turn 200ish, on any difficulty level if you dont know what to do. Difficulty is tied to turn number, so the key is to make the biggest possible matches every turn while its easy, so you get more drops & more collections of everything before it gets hard. So if first turn of the game your at full health, match the 15 potions anyway, not the 3 coins. And ignore those 1 damage skulls unless you can make a big match with em.
Are you kidding? I can't believe you waited this long. I will be shocked if you don't get addicted to it.
Ok this game is sitting at the "above average" table for me at the moment, there is one huge thing that annoys me about it. I have no idea what the different abilities do... for example, I just got something that provided 5% life leech. What the hell does that do???? I was watching for changes to my health every move and I just couldn't see what it actually did. Seriously, there needs to be a proper breakdown of what everything does otherwise I just end up feeling like the upgrade screen gets in the way seeing as I don't know what is better than what. Also, it's annoying when you press and hold on a special monster but the description appears under your finger, makes it so hard to read. Can you not just put this pop-up box at the bottom of the screen over the coins until you release your finger?
Critical hit is the best new idea I have seen for this game in a while. Maybe add it as a level up choice, because the level up choices are a little thin. After you max skills and %'s, you basically pick health, damage or repair every time. I also still think armor piercing is a bad stat & needs a rework.
Total noob question -- do you ever "beat" your opponent? Or are you just trying for higher scores and therefore higher levels and therefore better skills etc. More to point I guess - are your enemies like puzzle quest or is it never ending - finishing due to your own mistakes.
You aren't actually playing against anyone. Every skull left on the screen damages you and the fancy colored ones will damage and have some strange effect on you or the rest of the board (as well as generally being tougher to take out). You can never win, it is simply, like any other Survival game, a matter of seeing how long you can last and how much damage you can do against the baddies (I'm not really clear on how the end of game scoring is calculated but I'm assuming turns survived is the biggest factor but experience earned and gold collected are also clearly factored into the total). @Fireflame Unless a lot of the scoring can only be calculated at the end, I too would love to see my current score displayed in game as I often have no real clue if I'm in the midst of a record run or just a piss poor one at this point.
Thanks Lord Gek! I was looking for how close I was to killing my enemy my first two times playing! So far its pretty fun though and I do like the leveling aspect. I can see sinking some time into this!
FF - I would make the following recommendation for your consideration: Change the 3 lower levels (easy, normal and hard) into an actual quest with an ending and a finite amount of levels. You have about 20 special monsters now, just make it a gauntlet, where every time you hit some multiple of levels (not turns) the next boss comes out. Once you kill the final Boss, you win. The reason I say levels, as this gives repeat plays on these of how fast can you get through all of the bosses. Then keep harder the way it is as the never ending, ultimate challenge. On the easier levels this provides a progressive challenge for people to learn the game, but without feeling like they broke the game when they got a good setup. And it gives those that want some sense of a goal, an actual goal.
Enh. While not dissing the idea of new modes, I'm hoping we could still keep the current Normal/Hard modes as well.
