There's not really a new game or a main menu per sey. The game starts in the first town. There is persistence in the sense that if you start a character, find items, sell items to the store then die, those items will still be available for the next character as will most of the quests that were available. You can remove characters from the party, create new characters and go out with a brand new party if you want. While you are on an adventure, you can hit the tool button in the top right to get at a settings screen that is similar to the initial screen but has extra options like turning off the background music.
Ok, so there is not a full game reset? Perhaps this is something that can be added? I created the characters while I had no real clue (still don't) about the game mechanics. In the first fight I wrongly gave one my characters a class I did not want as I had not idea what any of the buttons did in the fight. I would also suggest at least an in-game help text for each screen explaining what the person is supposed to be doing. As someone said above, I want the challenge to be the adventure, not the game usability. For the record I bought the 2.99 pack to support this product as I believe it shows promise.
I've done that before when not paying attention. Except for having a line that says "class name level 0" on the character screen, this can be corrected simply by not using the ability (which means the class won't level) and picking the ability from the right class the next time you level. You can also delete characters, remove characters from the party and add new ones, remove everyone from the party and create a whole new one, etc. Making a new party of lvl 0 characters is effectively a game reset. The game is designed for multiple characters and parties to go through it. Beyond the first town, weapon shops are empty until your characters find and sell items, at which point those items will appear for sale. Your adventure points are also global. Some of the quests can't be solved with the current party. For example, you could be notified in town # 3 that a lot of monsters are gathering near town #1. These quests offer bonus adventure points, but since you can't go back to previous towns, you have to create a new party to complete it.
One thing I have noticed is how hard it is at times to see your enemies amoungst the background. The graphics are not clear at all. For instance there was one enemy, some sort of bird, that is simply a little black line and you are completely unable to see it when trees are the background. And that is on the big iPad Pro! I would hate to try and see it on a smaller screen. Perhaps if the enemies could have some sort of highlighting you could see them better? Also sometimes if an emeny attacks a team member off screen the camera does not follow the enemy so you don't know which team member got hit. A couple of bugs I have come across; *Tapping on the "end turn" icon while your party is grouped causes all the other icons on the screen to become unresponsive. All you can do is move the group around. This becomes very frustrating on a large map as you are unable to tap on the minimap icon to get your bearings. *If a two handed weapon is equipped then you cannot equip a shield, which is correct. However if you equip the shield first you can then also equip the two handed weapon. The added blocking bonuses from the shield will show on your characters stats. One other thing. The description for the Founders Pack is a bit deceiving. It says you can get all the classes and races. You do not get any more races other than the original four you get without the Founders Pack.
I'll have to look at the two handed thing and get something out sooner rather than later. Sounds like some easy fixes though.
Just submitted update 1.02 which fixes some of these issues and a couple of other bugs. Added a highlight to all monsters to make them easier to see and added a zoomed/unzoomed map setting that should help a little on phones, the downside being that you can't see as far away.
Yeah, I always used Identify when I couldn't see what was keeping me from grouping back up. I think highlighting all of the mobs works pretty good though. I worried it would make the screen too busy. Identify is very nice in finding resistances. I played around with those a lot to make sure different spells were better against specific mobs. For example, dark/unholy magic is best against humanoids but obviously doesn't work against demons/undead. Snakes are weak to cold, scorpions to electricity and spiders to fire. Etc. I just approved the patch so it should be live.
The highlighting looks very good. Thanks! One thing so far that has been disappointing is that there is very little rewards when doing quests. The majority of times I only get 0-1 coin from drops and crates and no items. Is that a direct consequence of only having quests that are a few levels lower than my characters?
Yes. I'd have to check on the level range, but when it considers a mission trivial, it won't give you any decent rewards for it.
Hey, thanks for responding. 1) Which building is the inn?? None of the buildings are labeled! One allows me to make characters, one seems to be a shop, allowing me to buy and sell stuff, and the third shows a bunch of items I can view, but I can't see any way of equipping them. I don't understand your instructions either - the first building shows a list of my characters but no character icons at the bottom, and the other two show character icons at the bottom but no characters to select elsewhere. Also in the building where I create characters, why does it show up and down arrows next to each character? Tapping on that does nothing. What's more, if I remove a character from my party, select it, then tap the Info button, the game crashes with a runtime error 'no such table: character_ability_use'. 2) Yeah sorry, but that's very confusing to put the level up button as part of combat. You don't need a screen to pop up - just have an icon appear that glows or something. Though personally I would have a screen appear the first time to inform users what's happening. Minimizing UI and information for the sake of immersion just doesn't work if you don't make things VERY clear. Designing a UI that is elegant, informational, and functional is an art form - there's a reason why UI Designer is a job title and why you need a strong art and design as well as human interaction background to get such a job. Inform your users at the beginning. THEN worry about immersing them. If your game is good enough, you won't even need to worry much about it anyway - it'll just happen for them. Immersion isn't about minimizing the UI. It's about capturing and retaining attention and interest, and you do that by providing a good story, good game mechanics, and/or tangible ambiance. 3) Ok i get it - makes sense. However, never take your user out of the game. I HATE when games have links to web pages. At the very least, warn your users what tapping the link will do. But it would be much better to put the help info in the game. Never give a user a reason to leave. You may not get them back. 4) Ok I understand. The game I'm making doesn't allow camera movement either (but then mine doesn't allow you to see other areas anyway). Sometimes it's just not practical. One last thing - PLEASE make your text easier to read. There are places where the colors don't contrast enough. For example, in one of the buildings, when you select an item, there's some dark blue text in the bottom right corner against a dark background - very hard to read. And then when you leave the town, the red text at the top saying it's loading is also hard to read, especially for color blind people like myself. Do some research on color theory and UI design or get a designer to look at your UI to give you feedback on color combinations, spacing, sizing, etc. It'll make a world of difference. If you make these changes, I'll be happy to increase my rating.
I get your gripes about the game, but why bring them up in an iTunes review instead of just here? The developer is obviously active here and seems more than willing to make improvements. Holding a review hostage for an indie developer who will barely make their money back for the art assets seems rude and a waste of time. Do what you want though, free country. I like the game so far, dev. I'm having the same issue with the inn and inventory management. Thanks!
I did the iTunes review first, then thought to post here as well. Why shouldn't I post on iTunes too though? Would you want to get a game for which all negative reviews were left out? That wouldn't provide an honest view of the game. There are tons of gamers who don't visit touch arcade. I'm not 'holding my review hostage'. I'm providing honest feedback. If the dev wants to listen to it and use it, great, he gets a better game (IMO) and a better review. If not, that's his choice, but he may very well get other users who think the same thing. Or maybe he won't - that's a choice and potential risk he (and every dev) needs to face.
Like I said, do what you want. It is a free to download game though, and the issues you bring up could be discovered by these gamers before they spend money. I'm not too sure who you are helping with your review, but I know it's not the developer. Anyway, just my thoughts. Also, it seems like the "inn" inventory management bug solved itself for me after I finished a quest. It just seems to bug out for new characters.
Let's not get side tracked on the reviews. I'd rather focus on issues/suggestions with the game. Yeah, kinda a silly bug. I added a number to denote how many rounds until you could use an ability, but the table that keeps up with that is created when you start an adventure. So it bugged out for anyone that tried to view their character before they'd ever been on a quest. Got it fixed now, but you are right, it resolves itself after the first quest.
I just updated the game with some optimizations to the sound engine that should improve performance on older devices. There's also a one-time pass you can purchase with adventure points to play a class. You can purchase this pass multiple times. For Endless Depths 2 and Endless Nights players, feel free to send me a note at [email protected] or leave a response here detailing what you like better about those games compared to this one. I may start to work on a new Endless Depths game later this year.
Going to previous town In case anyone has this problem: at the second town one of my guys died, which seems to make you stuck. You can't make a replacement here, can't complete any missions with only 3 adventurers, and can't even go back to the first town. The trick is, remove everyone from your party. Once everyone at the second town is in reserve at that inn, you get an option to pick which town to play. Don't do what I did and fail missions, hoping a rumored "back to 1st town" one might pop up.
1) Does dual wielding require that the second weapon be classed as an "offhand" item? I have a thief training as a mercenary and that class has the dual wield trait but I am unable to equip him with a second weapon. EDIT- okay, purely by accident it seems you have to equip a weapon in the weapon slot and then try to fit another weapon on top of it and then it automatically falls into the offhand slot. Not the most intuitive method I must say. # 2) Also is there any way to combine each characters gold? 3) Also a suggestion;- In the inn when looking at a characters attributes/skills in the Party Roster menu via tapping on Info, could you please make what looks like arrow heads next to the characters name actual pointers to change to the next character. Or maybe add the character icons to the bottom of that screen like they appear when you check your characters while exploring. At the moment you have to tap on Exit and then tap on the character and then tap on Info to check each character. It would just make it a lot easier to compare each member in your party. Edit; Why am I unable to equip a Short Bow? It says any class can equip it but I am unable to equip anyone with it. It also says it is an offhand weapon but when I try in the offhand slot it just says "you cannot equip this item", and if I try to put it into the weapon slot it doesn't stay there.
I wanted so much to like this game however it just was not to be. Having gotten to level 4 missions and all that happens now is my team does very little damage and most times they just miss. The random number generator is atrocious. Battles can take 10 minutes simply because everyone, my team and the enemies, miss hit all the time. The gear you can purchase in the towns markets is dismal as well as the drops you get when exploring. Combat has simply become a total chore and the rewards are not worth the effort. Very disappointed.
Sorry to hear. I assume you mean quests from the 4th city and not literally level 4 quests. Level 4 monsters have an melee AC of 11, so you should hit 45% of the time even if you have absolutely no bonuses. The 4th city's basic level range is 13-16, so the melee ac on monsters would be from 16-20 depending on the level and the particular monster. By the time you are level 13 with a melee character, you should have around +4 to melee attacks based on your class and hopefully be wielding a +3 weapon, so you should just need a 9 on a 20 to hit an AC 16 and a 13 to hit an AC 20. This isn't counting dexterity bonuses or any other melee to-hit bonuses from other items or the particular ability you are using. You should see the numbers needed to successfully hit when you attack. Below the dice is the to-hit bonus on the left and what is needed on the right. You can also look at monster stats via the Identify button. If your characters are spread out, you will get tactical penalties and if they are close together you can get tactical bonuses. Basically, if you have two characters side by side fighting one single monster who doesn't have allies adjacent, the monster's AC goes down by 1. If three characters surround a single monster, the monster's AC goes down by 2. This works in reverse too, so when monsters are surroundng a character, the character is easier to hit. When I train at the Inn, I usually favor dex because it helps with to-hit rolls for all class types. The last update should have fixed the bug where training sometimes resets.
