Finally got Shadow Sleuth!!! (And its hat.) Got it from one of the two books in Tetramont's Estate Gold. I compiled a list of the levels' books/notes/anything-you-can-read up to that level, so it includes the whole 1st page of Story Mode. I'll post it if requested... (Might even do the rest of story mode if asked by a couple people. Don't really feel like doing it for fun, though... ) Now I've just got the three broken achievements and the Hat Hoarder achievement, which will be much easier when the updated trinket arrives.
Good job! Would love to get some help for this level. Would be nice if you could post that. Thank you!!
I suppose I will replay to find these, eventually. Still haven't found that one Master Mode trinket, I've been playing Zombieville 2 a lot. I pretty much think I've only missed one book, ash if you can post how many books are on the first page that would be nice.
You'd love to get help with what level? The list is below. Well, I used it to get all 3 stars on most of the master mode levels... Not sure if I need it... What levels don't you have 3 starred? Zombieville USA 2 is awesome, I'm going to go upgrade all the skills now that I'm temporarily done with MG. The list is hopefully completely accurate, but it's pretty hard to know for sure if you've really read everything. I included anything you can read, even if it was mandatory to read or out in the open: 2 in Bronze Whitebeard's Tower 2 in Silver Whitebeard's Tower 1 in Gold Whitebeard's Tower 2 in Bronze Gardens 3 in Silver Gardens 3 in Bronze Ruins Crossing 1 in Silver Ruins Crossing 3 in Gold Ruins Crossing 1 in Bronze Orc Forest 1 in Silver Orc Forest 2 in Gold Orc Forest 1 in Bronze Boarlands 1 in Silver Boarlands 1 in Gold Boarlands 2 in Bronze Slime Cave 2 in Silver Slime Cave 2 in Gold Slime Cave 1 in Bronze Tetramont's Estate 2 in Silver Tetramont's Estate 2 in Gold Tetramont's Estate 35 in total on the 1st page of Story Mode. (Is that right, Kepa?) P.S. When I went to preview this post, a lot of the spaces in between words in the list were replaced with little poop symbols, like you sometimes see in reviews on the app store... What gives? Is it like early April Fools or something? Never had anything like that happen before. EDIT: Just so you know, I'm being completely serious. The poop-symbol thing really happened.
That list seems right. We really need to add an icon that says whether or not you've found the books in a level. Did you copy and paste your text for the post from someplace else? Can break formatting sometimes.
Hey Kepa how's the update coming along? Pretty excited for it. After playing Crypt 3 on master mode for an hour or two I've realized that if you remove the doors from that map it will be much more viable. Any plans on removing doors from master mode as well?
Could take a glance at it, but I don't think I'd do a complete removal of backtracking doors in Master Mode. I'd just take a look at problem levels.
Remove them from that level and everyone should be able to beat it will little issue. Only reason I cannot is because I get swarmed by the blue guys in the little rooms ;S. Finally beat Pinnacle 1 master mode 3 stars. Pinnacle 2 is still hard for me (shield is disheartening). Going to keep at crypt 3 and if I continue to fail by level 75 I am going to give up (currently level 72).
Game Impressions Kepa: I've been playing this game since the launch and I have read the last 60 pages of this thread. I've gotten the IAP since because I thought you guys were pretty rad and could use the cash. I've poured a lot of time into the game, trying to three-star maps and collecting most of the boss hats. I've avoided all the spoilers I could from this site and the net at large regarding item placement (until I have the item, then I research it) and the rest of the story. I have not yet completed Master Mode, saving all the Tower stuff as a little treat for later. My feedback may be influenced by this. First off: All my hats are off to you. I've played an extensive selection of titles on iOS for both iPhone and iPad and this ranks among the best. I feel you guys aren't trying to be among the best though, but simply the best. This trilogy has the potential to redefine iOS gaming and sets an unbelievable bar for your peers. As such, here are some minor things I'd like to discuss. The story was quite enchanting. Many RPGs, even those with good game play, have poor writing or execution. For the most part, the story of Mage Gauntlet didn't suffer from this but had a succinct plot that went layers deeper if the player so wished to. The game was often actually funny at times instead of wince-inducing and one could actually feel for Lexi. Nevertheless, I can point out something that really struck me as paradoxical. Worse, it cut to the core of this gorgeous game and the world you built. In one of the most memorable scenes in the early game, the Spoiler " great Spoiler " wizard Whitebeard tries to teleport you away. You aren't effected by the spell. Now, Spoiler unless you want us to believe that Whitebeard intended to use a fake teleport spell on Lexi to trick her (which could be in the story later[but I haven't finished Master Mode]) Lexi's whole deal is that she is unaffected by magic. You can't cast spells because of your condition. You need the gauntlet because of your condition. You can touch enchanted doors destroying them because of your condition. Whitebeard can't even teleport you away if he wishes... When I encountered the first spellcasting enemy in the game, I actually stood there defiantly. I took the shot in the chest and to my amazement, I was down a heart. So the whole of the magic world you've developed doesn't effect Lexi but that crappy Orc "fireball" spell damaged me? It was just really jarring. To my knowledge, it wasn't explained to me why a character who was shunned because her whole deal is magic resistance isn't resistant to magic when it matters...except sometimes? Still confused. I hadn't hear anyone say this so I thought I'd be the first to ask. To say it again though, the story and the world you guys built is pretty awesome. Nevertheless, you force your players to get annoyed at it. Why? You can't skip cut scenes after first encounters. How does it make you feel to know people are frustrated by the story during boss grinds? It's a shame to ever be annoyed at such a lovely world. Allow players the chance to end cutscenes by choice on additional encounters. Something else that was odd was that the game didn't have support when one would turn the iPhone upside down. Different people have different preferences for holding the device. The end. It isn't symmetrical. I've heard people complaining about the feather, but I hope it isn't nerfed or whatever. It was the first IAP I bought because I heard it was worth it. Here's the deal though: I don't hear anyone complaining about the IAP Sword. This confuses me and here is why. No other weapon can kill enemies through walls. Spoiler The Crystal Staff just does knockdowns to my knowledge (I'll get to how I know about this if I avoided spoilers in good time =]) I repeat, no other weapon kills through walls. This one does. Walls, barriers, doors, whatever. I'm just going to yam on this attack button and after a while you'll just die. I don't find reason for me to carry any other weapon except for specific boss fights. It feels like the Feather in that the only time you aren't using it is if you are using the dedicated Glowing Sword combination. I can tell you that it isn't surprising that in a game like this, killing enemies through walls is pretty much the tits. I feel like the only justification for the level cap is so you can only sink twenty-five points into any given stat. What's the justification for both? Though I can kinda understand that you don't want people to go nuts on vigor or magic or even luck (all crits all the time =D), I think that you missed on your best opportunity to diversify character builds and allow people to make commitments to doing fun things like that. Every Lexi at the maxed level (since she has a cap that, in my opinion feels arbitrary and hurts replayability) is the same and all the player's agency in prioritizing (again, since you can only prioritize when a stat is buffed) is then removed. If I had all the hats and achievements, it could still be cool to just grind and have a better Lexi. You could even eventually list it on the leader boards just like you plan to list Arena stats. I feel like luck is awesome and undervalued. I obviously prioritized on Vigor because I love to dash, but I actually ended up liking luck. Until I bought the IAP Sword Spoiler and I stumbled upon the Crystal Staff , luck had real utility outside of the tiny magic bonus. After either of those events, you make players really regret any stat point in luck. Spoiler The Staff is like the Sword in that Luck doesn't affect the spell cast/whether it crits or am I incorrect? Twenty-five points of luck are rendered as useful as ten of Magic. Bummer. With that said, I wish Luck actually did affect things like the sword explosion (but give it a way lower base of trigger % and the same with the Spoiler Staff if that's the case) or you could even just give things like a sword the ability to just regularly critical. I'm unsure of the solution, but it definitely shouldn't be giving big buyer's remorse to people who actually want to invest stats in luck. On a side note, I think it's pretty ridiculous that the Rabbit's Foot trinket boosts luck but not the stat luck :-/ Confusing. I think if you overhaul the buff spells as you have discussed lately, you will regret it and suffer the problem that you initially feared by overly powerful buffs. Increasing their duration while merging them seems like too much, too fast. Have you thought about just applying regular critical bonuses to them and treating them like the rest of the spells in the game instead of an aberration? Maybe a critical Silence/Time Circle give you the merged copy? Ultra and Sword Fury could have their own crits. I have some ideas for shield I'll elaborate on as well later. Simply put, I think you have a good system already and you should apply the system to ALL the spells, including the buffs. It would vastly improve their performance, lend to a more seamless experience, and you'd be less likely to need to go back and nerf the buffs again. Just an idea. Have you though about having a single inventory slot? It feels grindy to push health/spell urns around and shield is just bad unless you're running glowing sword or friends. It would be awesome to pick up an urn (even Haste) and having the ability to go to your inventory that is currently entirely spells and use it. It adds a bit of ease to the game for the earlier player and can act as an additional heart or spell in levels where you feel it is appropriate for the player to have it. It was an idea I'd been kicking around. You could maybe even carry a spell urn or an item from one level to the next. A cool tension would be that you'd always know what a heart would do but that a spell urn would obviously have its own sense of unpredictability. I'm sure you thought about an inventory and clearly went against it. I think holding a single urn wouldn't be too cumbersome though. At worst, I think the ability could make for a cool suit of armor or item in general. I wish there was a way to check if I had used any lives or a Phoenix feather while in a dungeon. It's really annoying to stop playing the game mid-dungeon and come back with no idea about my progress. The doors are really annoying when I'm trying to three star a level and there is an enemy in a pocket I missed. I can understand their purpose in Master Mode, but in Story Mode they are just annoying. Shield clearly needs some work. Someone had said that they thought shield was better than a heart. Bull. Sure, it stuns but it doesn't stun if you are pro and don't get hit. Worse is when you are hit but you don't get invincibility frames like with normal damage and you lose your shield and life as well. I really don't see why it needs to disappear over time. I don't think it would be broken if it was persistent until you were hit. Heck, that could simply be its crit Funnily enough, someone had said it was pretty much impossible to Spoiler stumble on the staff. I did, looking for texts and stuff. It was more appealing because I needed to get the Achievement for killing 5 mini-bosses with a lightning spell. I died, but got the achievement and was very curious. The second time, I made it. Just saying, it is very possible to just find that item when grinding. I was really excited when I saw that there was a chest until I opened it and realized I had found the staff without following the clues. Then I was kinda sad. Hope you can get back to me. Kudos. You deserve every dollar you get. EDIT: Letting you know I registered for this post. Oh, and hit the character cap. On to post #2.
Sorry for the double post. Hit the character limit. A few more things. Stellar control system. Stellar. The only possible improvement I can think of would be if you had the option to move the dash/attack buttons. Please give me EXP from boss kills. I understand why you don't for boss battles due to endlessly spawning enemies. Still, some exp for killing the boss or breaking the crystal would be very appreciated, especially when one is on the hat grind. Wish you would have fleshed out the Summoner class as well as you fleshed out the Enchanter (glowing sword and etc class). A robe/weapon that increased duration would be appreciated, as would the possibility of crits. More duration, damage, a bigger summon, whatever. =] Thanks again, Rocketcat. Hope you guys get a chance to see this. Great game. I hope this feedback is helpful. EDIT: My IAP Helm isn't actually on fire and I wish it was.
Wooooaaahhhh.....how long did it take to type all that? (OT I agree with most of what you said, and yea Kepa will see you're post don't worry )
Yeah, it should be on fire. Maybe we can sneak that in. It SHOULD give XP from boss kills already. Maybe it doesn't give enough? Or maybe it's bugged... We're differentiating the loot better in the future. In spinoff/sequels, anyway. I'd like to make the summons better, they seem to underperform to me. We're adding ONE MORE BUTTON next game, hope it doesn't mess with the controls. We'd like to do drag-buttons-around in settings, like many games have, though it's kind of a big feature. Not sure when it will go in... Reading the bigger post now.
Lexi was given a special gauntlet (and I mean special, it can't be magical otherwise it would have shattered like everything else) in Whitebeard's Tower area 3. With the gauntlet bound to her, she's able to interact and absorb passive magic in the environment, in addition to getting a hefty strength boost for her swinging arm to hit jerks with. The "mage gauntlet" is doing all of the complicated casting and augmenting while at the same time making her vulnerable to huge fireballs being flung in her general direction. Without the gauntlet, Lexi is utterly anti-magical and is just as frail as any girl with little combat training. In gameplay terms, a gauntlet-less Lexi would have one heart and hit for about a quarter of her normal strikes. I know the first two areas shows otherwise with the hearts, but it's a minor flavor thing, as Lexi can't even get hurt until the Garden. That and she would be immune to all magic and unable to use spells or healing urns. It wouldn't be very fun. That said, there is a very good reason why Lexi is naturally magic immune and it has everything to do with what's going on in Mage Gauntlet and its future sequels. For the time being, Lexi is just venting and enjoying what she's been denied from in her entire life.
Seems like you've had a lot on your mind Maybe I can clear a couple things up for you: The gauntlet, according to Whitebeard, "merely treated her symptoms", meaning that she was normal while attached to the gauntlet (normal as in can use and be affected by magic ). Kind of subtle, but there it is. IDK about the screen flip, I think it was brought up before, but I don't remember Kepa's response... TBH, The only person I've seen complaining about the feather is Kepa He dislikes that it's too useful for an IAP. The Inferno Blade should be balanced out more when the lightning sword comes, though the "getting enemies through walls" is a very good point. The rest of my giant post got deleted when Safari crashed (on my ipod) . As Kepa's about to address your post, I don't think I'm going to rewrite the rest of my giant reply... (Except for one part, which I'll put in a different post.) Took forever to write all of it, which is why it took so long to respond, and now it's just gone... Unrelated: I'll try doing the Pinnacles w/o PF tonight.
I may have missed some of the points, but those are the ones that caught my eye the most. 1. The gauntlet is supposed to neutralize her anti-magic condition. Otherwise all the trinkets and magical swords she'd touch would just explode. Originally we explained this better, but had to cut it because the tutorial was already too wordy. For example, there was a segment where she picked up some really powerful seeming magical swords, but they'd just instantly explode instead of being equipped. Now I think there's just one quick line from Whitebeard saying that the gauntlet will let her safely do things she couldn't before. The flipside of this is that enemy magic affects her, post gauntlet. 2. It's supposed to skip the boss dialog if you retry a level... is that not working? 3. We had that in previous games, too, it just slipped past us this time. That'll be in soon. 4. We decided not to nerf the feather, just add some similar items. LIke the Ring of the Zealot is going to be changed to "ressurect you at half health (maybe two hearts?) with a Sword Fury buff" extra life that you get really early on. Though in future games we're definitely removing any sort of PAY FOR EXTRA LIVES idea. 5. Making it not do physical crit was a balancing thing to make it in line with other swords, if you ignore the using it through walls thing you're doing. We're adding more swords like it, though. They're going to be weaker in spell effect, but they'll still crit physically. 6. The level cap is just due to the stat cap. The stat cap is so you couldn't just pump every single point you got into vigor, for endless chain charging. We'll be scrapping the leveling system as it is now in the next game, though. 7. WOOPS. We're just changing the Rabbit's Foot so it greatly increases the hat drop rate. Also it does increase luck stat already, it's just not shown. And due to the random nature of things, it's really too subtle. 8. We're merging them, but not buffing any durations or anything. Buffs actually used to crit, but the crits just doubled the duration for that buff. We removed that because it wasn't very clear what was going on, and we didn't have time at that point to do a better system. 9. Sequel will have a small inventory, along with randomized loot and in-level equipment swapping. Spells will also become more traditional, in that you'll find sources to power up your gauntlet. After that you can select what spell you want to use, consuming a general mana pool. This will open up a lot of RPG stuff and action-adventure stuff. 10. Yeah, it needs to give invincibility frames like getting hit does. Otherwise I like shield fine, really. Oh and more support for summoners would be cool.
Thanks so much, kepa! On #2, I guess I should be more nuanced. Let's say I'm trying to get a hat for a boss fight or whatever. I enter. Cutscene. Win. No success to objective. Retry. Enter. Cutscene. Win. Enter. Cutscene. Win. Or replaying some of the Drudgor levels for three stars. Dialogue. Or the end of the Golem King on Terramount. Just need a way to skip the cutscenes on replay. I understand that if I die in a boss fight, I won't get the cut scene. What if I win though but want to keep trying it? Hope that clarifies the question. Also, I can't speak for anyone else but I don't get exp on boss fights. I wouldn't expect to on minions since you could just milk them for exp but I figured the boss would. My copy of the game doesn't seem bugged in any way. Anyone else having trouble with this? Thanks for the prompt reply to my wall of text. Edit: Seriously though. Thanks. You don't get this kind of quality support from developers to fans in most other mediums. Mage Gauntlet was the first Rocketcat game I've purchased but it won't be the last. Again, great game all around. It's bittersweet tot finish it but I'm excited for sequels.
