Enh, I like having to make the tough choices and think being able to stretch it multiple turns until you find some ideal upgrade kind of weakens stuff. Is there an option to pass altogether if you don't like the choices?
Yeah, spikes are great if you can manage to get a bunch, but are pretty risky because they only work while your armor isn't completely broken, which becomes more likely as you start to forego armor upgrades for spikes. And of course, if you then focus too much on collecting shields you run the risk of a crowd of enemies gathering up and hitting you hard enough to kill you, even if they do kill themselves in the process. It's rare that you'd get 3 sidegrades although it certainly can happen, but there's usually ways to protect yourself from this, for example someone suggested earlier to only focus on upgrading 1 or 2 items and that way you'll always have another option if you get unlucky with the store upgrades. I think allowing rerolls at store items each turn might make it too easy to wait around for the ideal items to come along, getting frustrated if they don't? The plan right now is to release 1 more update before Christmas (with 1 update already waiting for review), and then release a lite version after the Christmas.
I have been traveling a lot the past week, and whole plane trips speed by while I play this game obsessively. I have played almost nothing else for 2 weeks. I still think the scoring between difficulties is off, hard does not pay off in points over medium, considering the difficulty difference. Separate high score lists for each difficulty level would be nice perhaps. Especially since I am just going to keep playing on the hardest level, I see no reason to play easier. Looking forward to the update.
Unless there is some big logistical reason for not doing this, I think 4 separate leaderboards would quash these discrepancies as well. Since FF has already admitted while he's firmed up the difficulty ramping in Normal (as well as switching to 4 difficulty levels to add something between the old Normal and Hard ratings) a bit so it won't be as easy to catapult beyond the curve in Normal (even though I have yet to do it myself), he wants to keep Easy a very casual experience.
Not really. While games like that Heroes deal and Puzzle Quest are a little similar (both RPG like games with match 3 elements), this one is pretty unique. You don't take turns swapping icons with an opponent...instead your opponents are actual beasties on the grid itself which you'll need to linkup with some swords by dragging a line through a trail of like icons (kind of like Azkend) to defeat.
But what kind of monsters you can encounter? Because I cant find that info at all. How many levels are in this game?
Its infinite, your character can level up as long as you live. A poster reported leveling so high on normal that he maxed certain skills and couldnt die, but believe me, normal isnt easy, and there is a hard level as well. Right now, the only monster is skulls, but they are adding more monsters with special powers, which Lord Gek has posted on above. Really, your thinking too much. Here is a little quiz: (1) have you ever gotten enjoyment from a match 3?; (2) did you enjoy Puzzle Quest, at least for a while?; and (3) have you ever gotten enjoyment from "roguelike" games? If you answer "yes" to all 3, then just buy it. If you have a "no" in there, maybe you wait for a lite or price reduction -- but you could be waiting a while.
Thank you ArtNJ Im buying this game today. I just hope to not see a sale in a long time Devs cause that freaks me out! To buy a game and see it on sale couple days after! Hehe
Yeah, the game has no point and you can never "win", it is just a matter of trying to survive as long as possible by any means possible. The game only has skulls but soon, with this upcoming patch, some of these skulls will have some devastating special abilities (if the special skulls icon alone doesn't give you a clue what their power is, just touch them to get a detailed explanation of their special ability). These Specials are kind of like Boss monsters and will tend to be a lot tougher than the standard grunts you are facing at that point in the game. There are no dungeon levels or clear cut monster levels...but they do get tougher and tougher as the game goes on (the difficulty you choose pretty much determines how quickly this ramp up of monsters occurs). Your character gains levels which allows stat and skill bonuses, but it is only part of the equation as a high level character doesn't mean much without commensurate equipment (old equipment upgraded all to heck or by buying the latest and greatest from the shop). There are no classes so you are free to develop your character however you like (focusing on offensive stats, defensive skills, getting the most potent armor possible, or whatever works best for you). Since there is a fair amount of luck in which skills are offered when you level as well as which icons fall when, you might often find yourself having to play the game in different ways than you might have hoped (you planned to be an offensive powerhouse, but by the luck of the draw, you're now being forced to use all sorts of tricky evasive skills like Teleport just to survive). While the difficulty pretty much just affects the monster ramp in difficulty, it really makes for very different gameplay. In Easy it is all about boldly taking out hordes of baddies without much concern whereas on Hard it is a lot more about hit and run tactics against vastly superior forces. On a side note to fellow Dungeon Raiders: Dazzle was never high on my wanted skill list but I've found it ESSENTIAL in dealing with these new specials!
Actually I think Dazzle already rocks. In late game, where coins only do one thing, and sometimes that one thing is seemingly give you downgrades, they are much more valuable as swords.
I'd like to see Artifacts added -- rare items you only get an opportunity to purchase sporadically (not necessarily every game). When given the chance to purchase an artifact, it will cost a full set of coins, plus all upgrade shields you currently have. The Artifact can have either an activateable skill taking up a 5th, new skill slot, or some sort of unique power. Possible Artifact Powers: 1. Turn Undead: 10% chance that a killed skull becomes an ally for 2-5 turns (random), during which 1/2 its normal damage hits other skulls. 2. Revenant: When killed, the wearer can continue to fight for one extra turn, and if the wearer heals into positive territory, play continues as normal; 3. Holy Wrath (Activateable Power): For every consecutive turn in which damage is inflicted, damage is temporarily increased by +2 4. Berserker: When health dips below 20, damage is increased by 50%. Things like that -- would add a nice, additional random element to the game. And of course, eventually that awesome sword with Turn Undead simply wont be doing enough damage and you'll reluctantly have to let it go.
I know that there has been a lot of talk about the game being a quick pick up and play type thing, and there is the one monster and no story, and all the other stuff... I also know that there is an update coming out... and this will add to the game... But I still think that this game could really rock with some sort of depth to it in terms of an objective. And it would be very easy to do -- at least as easy as I can see as a guy who has never programmed a game... It would be great to go into a "room" and have to fight a certain amount of bad guys (skulls, whatever) and then you move to the next room. It doesn't need to be a huge story, but it allows you to take a moment and regroup. This is where the RPG part can come in. As it stands now it all has to be done on the fly. This isn't bad, but knowing that you'll never really "win" anything does detract a bit. I like the game and I really like the mechanics of it. I would just like to see something a little... more. It would be great to enter a room and find different types of enemies and have to work things around to defeat them. That part might be coming, but it would be good to know that you've got a set number of them to beat in this room before moving on. This allows you to get excited by having something like, "two skulls left to kill and being very short on health, but if you can just hold out long enough to beat them you'll get a chance to buy some potion and heal up". That's the stuff the RPG's are made of. Again... great game and it's a fun way to spend a little time as a pick up and play game... but I think with just a few more tweaks you could have something that really drags me back for more game play (like Sword and Poker did), and not just a game where I pick up because I've got two minutes to kill waiting in line.
Yep, you're right, it does make sense to separate the score lists. I'll be looking to do this and hopefully add global leaderboards in one of the next 2 updates Interesting idea, artifacts were mentioned earlier in the thread and I'm still keen to implement them, but I like the artifact powers you've described, they could be fun and don't seem too overpowered. I do think there should be more of an effort to getting the artifacts rather than luck of the draw in the store, the idea mentioned earlier was that artifacts would come as a result of dumping a few upgrade points into forging an artifact, forcing you to choose between an upgraded item now vs a powerful artifact later on. I agree that some other modes of play would be good to do, and I'd like to add an option to play a winnable game or a more puzzle-focused game later on down the line, but for the next few updates at least I think the focus will be on enhancing and expanding the core gameplay as it is, as well as possibly adding unlockable rewards that persist across games.
So although I like the game as endless, after reading the request for some type of goal I started to think about that. I could see a new mode that is an quest mode. And I started to think about how the devs from Carcassonne did their solo mode and that gave me some ideas. What if in Quest mode you had to put together chains of increasing length of each tile type, and they have to be exact, no more or less. So 3 coins, 3 potions, 3 swords, 3 shields and 3 skulls. Once you have your chains a 3 you get your first boss, beat him, and then start on 4s. Maybe up to 10s? Once you get to 10s, the last boss drops "amulet of yendor" and then you have to do the whole sets again, but in reverse, so 9s, 8s, etc. So it really has that rogue feel to it. Just some thoughts for you to think about.
As far as unlockables, how about going something like what was done in Tilt to Live? Eventually once you add GC you might want to add some achievements worth different values based on their difficulty (a few basic milestones like grabbing x number of coins in a single move to trickier shoot like taking out three specials in a single move or allowing over 75% of the grid get filled with beasties). Once you have achieved certain target amounts of achievement points the player would gain access to a new skill or special in the game (basically earning the right to have this new skill/special shuffled into the game). I like this a lot more than allowing the player some permanent leg up like special armor or a weapon from the get go as it feels like some unfair advantage.
