2018-11-08 23:36:22

hello,

just a question, you say there are no random events in the Dolgrimm castle area, you say you will add more random events to new areas, does this include the add-on areas?

2018-11-09 01:42:45

I'm curious.
How do you make an apple pie? I have at least 3 balls of dough and about 5 apples, what else could I possibly need?

Heroes need foes to test them. Not all teachers can afford to be kind, and some lessons must be harsh.

2018-11-09 02:16:27

probably some straight-up flour. if that's an item.

2018-11-09 02:43:44

Hi

@bookrage
As of now, castlevania doesn't have random events yet, but it will be included in the first official update for castlevania. But to awnser your question, yes, add-on areas will get random events added to them as well and their random events will be updated every so often as well, and even get new ones as like the free game smile

@dragomier

Slight
spoilers
ahead
To make an apple pie, you'll need applepie mix. To cook applepie mix you'll need 2 apples, 1 sugarbeet and 3 raisins, to make the final apple pie, you'll need 1 apple pie mix and a single dough. Keep in mind, that in both cases it can go wrong and you have to gather the resources again.
end
of
spoilers.

Hope this helps.

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
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2018-11-09 03:32:51

Is it possible to make it so you don't only get to use one ability per fight? It doesn't really make logical sense, and most of the time the attacks do less damage than a shruikan throw does. So they kind of become redundant.

Heroes need foes to test them. Not all teachers can afford to be kind, and some lessons must be harsh.

2018-11-09 10:18:19

Hi

@dragomier
This was the case in beta 2, but we discovered taht players can just keep using combat abilities without being limited by the timers we use during fights, i mean, the reaction time you have when you get the "block" or the "hit it" messages. When players constantly use combat abilities, the combat would be far to easy, and the system is already very easy to play with. We made this change cause there has to be a slight challenge in combat, however players can spam the hell out of the system, but that's personal preference.

Eventually when you hit a certain combat level, your max damage will raise above the damage a shuriken does, and after a few more combat levels, your minimal damage will raise above that as well, but i am already wondering for some time now, if the shurikens aren't overpowered. They are in the game already since alpha 2 i think, but given the current state of the game and course we're taking ... I think that the power should be halved, to 5 damage, how do you guys think about the power of the shurikens?

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
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2018-11-09 10:59:01

Hi Pelantas!
I realy think the main problem is that all the activities are too easy and not realy challenging. Please dont take this too harsh, OK?

I got a sugestion:
It would be very nice if you could use for example the numpad-keys to move to all the directions.

2018-11-09 20:09:18

I propose connecting combat skills with either energy or introduce an ability points system where your availavle ability points increase as you level combat. As it is now I felt like kick barely did as much damage as the regular attack so in the end I ended up not using it at all, since I could only use it once anyway.
Also I feel like the fights give so few experience points when taking into consideration how long each fight lasts. I ended up buying a crapton of shuriken to speed things along. Speaking of which, maybe randomize its damage and add in a critical hit rate system for it.
Hope this helps.

Regards

2018-11-09 20:29:21

OK, i am a little dissatisfied with my own last post, haha. It is not nice if someone only says something not so nice without giving any constructive ideas.
So let my try to make some sugestions:
Would it be possible to change the combat-system to a little more actionbased?
For example.
If you start a fight, you will hear an indicating beep which is going up. This beep represents your attack-status-bar. If it raised up you can perform an action like throwing a shurican by pressing s or simply hit with h. If you here your enemys weaponsattack you have to press down for a block. This blockingaction with cut something from your attackstatusbar.

This is just a little example for a more interesting combatsystem. If you want i could give you some examples for the other activities too.

2018-11-09 20:55:51

Hi

Thanks a lot for the feedback so far, I agree that combat should become more interesting, i personally would like to go with a action point idea. The limit of one ability per round is a bit harsh, i agree tbh. I can't promise when it will be introduced, cause i have to design it. But action points for abilities per fight are noted down. The exp tweak can be done for the patch. I also will think of a way to include a chance for critical hits.

@firefly

I am very interested in your view on how some activities can be made more interesting, cause at the moment woodcutting and harvesting are casual based activities. Cause your_adventure mainly is a casual kind of game. But i am none the less interested in how it can be made more interesting. So for people who want this, an option can be made so woodcutting and harvesting will be more active, and for the people who want the casual thing, can just leave it on casual smile

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-09 21:31:13

I have a few ideas about abilities and other things.

1. you should have an AP system, because there are issues with getting stuck with no energy and having to work your way back, think they should be separate.
2. more powerful abilities should cost more AP, for example if fireball does more damage, it should cost more.
3. even with that, to keep abilities viable, you should either be able to level up the abilities themselves or you should be able to make them stronger through leveling. Or possibly you could, once equipment is implemented, introduce items that make stuff stronger.

and a few other things.

1. Shruikens should have a range of damage, not a set amount and should also have a chance of missing. You don't hit the bullseye of a dartboard every time you throw a dart.
2. things in the game are far too cheap when you purchase them with gold. I suggest raising prices of many items, weakening the really cheap ones, making sellables worth less, or introducing high-price items that you'd actually have to work for, most things for me are very very easy to save for and I can essentially buy anything in the game with minimal effort and time so there is little payoff when I get it.
3. I have mentioned this before but defending yourself in combat is much too easy. It is just a quickdraw where you either hit h or d if you aren't using shurikens (I don't) or abilities (I don't) and I am quick enough that I go through the vast majority of fights hitting every single time and never getting touched myself. perhaps make it so the player either has to select the right kind of attack or defense for example either dodge or parry, to make it not just jumping on one key over an d over and attacking can be hit, feint, or lunge for example.
4. scaling enemies: in combat areas, adversaries ought to get stronger as you do to keep things interesting. And here are three ways I've seen it done in games so take your pick.

1. different enemies show up at different levels (for example little easy-to-kill small animals might be in a forest  when you are low-level, medium animals when you are medium, and big scary animals when you are high.)

example

levels 0-4: squirrels, rabbits, sparrows
5-8: foxes, coyotes, raccoons, badgers
8-11: bears, wolves, rattlesnakes, mountain lions

The positives is that it makes the game seem new and gives the players a chance to  work to encounter new things in old areas and also gives them an incentive to work on their skills. The minuses is it makes old enemies less common later. for example it would be harder to find a rabbit when you are stronger. You could make it though that just the probabilities change and things like rabbits never completely go away and just become less common as the player is now beyond them and they are too easy.

2. leveling enemies: enemies get stronger and just get higher stats as you grow. For example whether you are level 2 or 20, a wolf is about the same difficulty either way. plusses: it is easy to implement and won't tax your creative reserves and it also keeps needed monsters available to players no matter what bad aspects: it doesn't give the player a something new feel if they fight the same monsters over and over, even if they are challenging.

3. the mixed option: tiered monsters.

The third option combines the two above and gets much of the best aspects of both. I will use only one monster to show this. As players level, they encounter similar, but not identical monsters in an area. The monsters drop similar materials if they drop stuff, perhaps though with the more powerful versions dropping more or better versions of it. Here is an example of how wolves work in this system.

0-4: Wolf pup
5-7: wolf yearling
8-10: adult wolf
11-14 lone wolf
15-17 wolf pack leader
18+: dire wolf

all these wolves would fight in a similar way and they all would drop similar objects if they dropped anything. You would only have to come up with a basic wolf idea and tweak the numbers. The only real downside is deciding what to call each rank. It lets you have variety with minimal effort, gives the players a sense of something new, lets them get good loot or crafting objects regardless of level, and keeps them challenged. Again, the only real downside is that you have to come up with different names for the ranks. Also you might want to maybe give certain monsters special powers, for example "wolves can do X" to make them feel like wolves and then you give all wolves a version of that power.

Also, don't remember, do you have different sound effects for your monsters, if you don't, you can make them feel different by giving them different sound effects, for example a whimper when a wolf is hit or a clacking sound when the blue crab attacks, it would also make the game feel more alive.

just some suggestions, love the game as is but think those things would improve it.

2018-11-09 22:21:49 (edited by pelantas 2018-11-09 22:23:04)

Hi

@bookrage,

I really like the ideas you just gave, i have noted down the change of enemies when your level increases, it won't make it into the patch, buti certainly can do something with it when beta 4 gets coded. After this patch several translations are in the pipe, and after the translations full attention will be given for beta 4, and the changing of enemies and making them more tough is one of the updates, thanks.

As well as the critical hit chance i will try to find a way for, and the action point system are most likely to be done.

Thanks a lot guys for all this feedback, this should become a game for us all, not just for a small part of the community. I will move along as much as i can, but when some things can't be done easely or be done completely with the current state of the codebase, then i will say it as well. Again, thanks a lot, and keep the feedback coming. smile

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-09 23:33:04

HAHA, i realy should go to sleep, but your enthusiastic post dont let me.

OK, some examples.
Fishing:
Fable 1 had a realy nice minigame for fishing.
There are two phases after you got a bite. in one phase the fish is struggling against the line till it is tired then the second phase beginns where you have to press a button several times to obtain the fish. But you have to be carefull cause the fish can regain its power and start struggling again. If you try to obtain the fish while it is struggling the line will tear.

Woodcutting: Maybe it would be cool to press the down arrow to prepare the swingpower. If you got enough power you have to press the up arrow to perform the swing.

I have to think about cooking and harvesting. Thats maybe a little bit tricky.

Have you thought of bringing in blacksmithing?

I realy have to go to bed now cause i have to get up early.
tomorrow i will send you some other suggestions about controls and skill stuff.

2018-11-10 11:49:27

Hi all

@firefly

Thanks a lot for these dieas, i think i have a vague picture on how this can be done. The original mechanics which are used now will remain standard, but when i have more clear on how to code your suggestions, they will be known as alternative modes.
I was planning on to introduce mining and smithing in beta 4, and i think equipment as well, but don't blow the horns yet, cause these three i still have to design smile
But the mining areas will have much more randomness over it then anywhere else atm. I am thinking of every time you enter a mining area, the veins of ore change, makes it a lot more interesting to find the ores you need smile But this still can change, cause nothing is engraved into stone yet.

@all others
I changed the plans a little bit, right now, the graveyard and the forest deal with tougher enemies as your level increases. For example, from combat level 1 and 2 you find ghostly childeren, from combat level 3 to 5 you'll find the ghosts which are coded in now, and from 5 onward you'll find eldarly ghosts. Each of these have stronger or weaker stats according to your level, but you do as well smile This is an interesting start of a new encounter system and it makes adding varieing kinds of enemies possible, thanks bookrage. I also will include action points and the critical chance to the patch. But keep in mind, tweaking still has to be done when it appears not working as well as i expected it to work for the community smile

After this additions to combat, i will stick to the original plan again, it is a patch after all, not beta 4 yet haha big_smile

But keep the feedback coming

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-10 12:36:04

I am not a big fan of the fact that the world is leveling up with you. It is a little bit unlogical in terms of the hole world but i realy can accept this fact. Thats nothing what would keep me from playing.

OK, question:
Could you add hbotkeys for items?
For example when you are in your inventory and have selected a fish. now you can press 1 and will have all the small fishes on 1 so you only have to press 1 while you are in the game without having to make all the selecting stuff.
If you want, you could link this feature to a special belt which you can win for completing a quest.
It would be great if you can use this for tools too. For example starting the fishing on a suitable place, or using a special skill in combat.

About the seasons:
HAHA, it is realy funny a short a year is.
But i realy think a season should be a little bit longer.
Maybe 7 days and 7 nights.
You see? I am thinking of a new day / night change. This could lead to interesting new opportunities.
For example the Tavern:
Most guests will e in the evening or at night. So you could get a daylyquest from the cook to prepare a special meal or special meals.
I think you already know for how many other special tasks you can use this. Blacksmithing special orders. Catch some fish for a meal. And so on and so on.

Thats it for now.

2018-11-10 13:16:55

I'm afraid I am less of a fan of  changing modes in the game to make say harvesting more active or have wood cutting work like a rhythm action game, since firstly that would negate the point of more casual activities if players could effectively turn them off, and secondly though wouldn't be reflective of a diverse world with many different things to do.

myself,  I'd prefer to see the game working a bit like Drakor does now with a mix of casual and active activities.

Imagine your favourite fantasy novel , there are times when the protagonists get attacked and have to defend themselves, or have to undertake dangerous quests which  MEAN BEING on constant alert and having to fight very hard, then there will be times your protagonists have to go off and do something more casual but that still requires a little concentration, such as catch fish or chop wood, then there will be times your protagonists will  go  and pick fruit for dinner or the like.

This is the way I'd like to see the game working, with each activity being slightly different and requiring a slightly different level of engagement from the player.

So at the moment, harvesting is pretty much a wait and watch activity, which, as the lowest energy thing you do makes sense. Fishing, takes a wee bit more guess work, and combat the most.
So, i'd like to see this theme continue.

For example, you could make wood cutting a rhythm action game in which you have to set up  rythm of holding the action key and releasing to swing your axe like some of the levels in rythm heaven.
It wouldn't be super difficult, but more like hold one release, hold one release, with perhaps a variety of three or four different rhythm types to denote the thickness of the tree you were tackling.

When mining gets introduced into the game, how about having you need to use a pickaxe to split the bed rock, then a shovel to actually chizzle out the ore, so the thing would have two stages, one in which you need to first guess how far down the ore is and then swing according to a rising tone (think Jim Kitchin's golf game), in order to break away the bed rock without damaging the chunk of ore under it, and then hammer the button as quickly as you can to simulate the need to lever the ore out of the rock with your shovel.

With combat, I really like the idea of an action point system, I also think it is a little too easy to block at the moment meaning there really isn't any risk in the way combat works.


A simple solution would be to have you need to guess an enemy's attack, left or right, and then block, say  having to hit b then an arrow.
That way you would get hit some of the time, though as a corilation of course your enemies would have the same.
This could also lead into adding things to combat such as shields which block more effectively, and combat maneuvers on your part that go through enemy blocks.

As regards combat damage and shurricans, while I like the idea of shurricans having a miss potential, I would suggest waiting to assess this until weapons actually make it to the game, since there are lots of possibilities.

For example, you might have weapons given a specific damage value or damage modifyer ontop of unarmed damage, in which case some existing monsters might need more hp to compensate along with a higher reward.

You might also have more forgeable weapons than just shurricans in the game, darts, throwing knives etc which might have other properties than just damage.

In general combat should be the most interactive part of the game and require the most concentration on the player's behalf, after all if different activities have different levels of engagement you can always chill out and go do some harvesting and cooking if you want to relax.

Btw, as a last point, I think there should be more places to rest in the game than just the inn.

As always, looking forward to where this one is going, now that the db is editable it'll probably be getting a page sooner or later.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-11-10 16:01:26

Hi

@firefly
Thanks a lot for your suggestions, the sad thing is, that botkeys can't be programmed in the codebase. But i like the idea of the day and night system you suggested. I will note it down as a kandiate for the future.

@dark
No worries, the simple mechanics will remain in place, and will remain standard, but for people wanting more challenge, i will introduce more active varients of the activities. But the casual playstyle of the game, will remain standard. I will also do my best to make combat more interesting, and the action points for the skills, the chances of hitting critical and more tough enemies while leveling up, while getting the same amounts of experience, are good starting points. I also am thinking, of when you hit in time, you still can miss, the enemy can dodge at the last moment. But when you block to late, you also still can dodge. This makes combat more random, instead of absolute.

I hope you like these ideas guys?

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-10 21:25:20

Hi all

Just finished the new additions to the comabt system, namely:

1. more tough enemies in the graveyard and forest, the tougher ones will show up when your combat level gets higher
2. critical hits are now possible, for both you and your enemy.
3. when blocking successful, there is now a chance you or your enemy will break through either defences.
4. you and your enemy can dodge at the last splitsecond when blocking. The system will keep track of this for you.

The next plan is to alter the shuriken damage and the damage ranges of the various abilities.

Keep in mind, when published, tweaks still may be necessary

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-11 00:19:54

hello, just downloaded beta 3, how exactly do I get in touch with you and purchase the add-on I want, and how do I use it once I get it?

2018-11-11 02:38:37

I like this game,
But this has happened like 2 times.
Some times when I open the game and click load my save data file is set to 0kb and I can't get back the save data.

2018-11-11 08:49:13

I'm afraid I am still not sure about having more active activities as an "extra mode", since as I said I'd prefer a variation in the game itself, but we will see how it works when its implemented.

I definitely like the idea of stronger  different monsters appearing at higher combat levels though, since that makes combat potentially more interesting.

One thing you could also consider, would be giving  each some sort of special attack. For example, rats could bite and poison you which would do a bit of extra damage, stinky mushrooms could release toxic spaws which freeze you for a bit, ghouls could gnaw on you meaning they got a couple of attacks in at once etc.

In general the more individual each enemy is the more interesting the game is, especially if they play with things like block and hit percentages, though as we still are waiting on armour and weapons in the ame and that is likely to change combat properties, this might have to be something else to wait a bit on.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-11-11 09:39:53

Hi,

@bookrage
On the your_adventure page where you downloaded beta 3.0 is also an add-ons page, from there you can make a payment for either the windows or mac version. We will get an email and process the request by hand. Our guaranty is that within 24 hours, you'll have the game with the add-on smile

@willbilec
Hmm, I thought this one was gone, this is a very strange one to tangle with, cause i think this is not cause of the game, but cause of the system played on ... Is the folder on a location your anti virus can't mess with it? Or are you running another application coded in bgt while playing your_adventure?

@dark
No worries, the game will remain as it is, but for people wanting more activitie, i am trying to find a way to include this. I know that in a previous post i wrote in enthousiasm i will do it, but i don't know when yet. But it certainly won't mess with the original idea of the game.

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-11 09:56:39

@Pelantas, sorry to harp on about the same thing but my issue isn't that it will "mess with the original idea of the game." I like the idea of more activity and player interaction hence my suggestions about mining and woodcutting , my issue  is that rather than trying to essentially make two games, an an active game and a passive game and please everybody, the game should have a variety of different activities, some more active than others, meaning that sometimes people will need to interact with the game a lot, sometimes people will need to just sit and wait, it all depends upon what people are trying to do.

As I said, look at Drakor as a great example, it has its in depth combat, the travel system and pets you have to take care of, but then when you go harvesting you can just kick back, wait and relax. This way, people won't be able to suddenly harvest by hammering a button, or leave the game running in the background to gather wood instead of interacting rhythmically, people will have to work at the game, either directly working at the active activities, or exercising patience in the passive ones.

That makes the hole game more diverse, and thus more rewarding, after all think about it in reality, you might spend a morning casually picking corn, then grind it into flower, but to pick up your axe and cut some firewood would take a good bit  more sweat and muscles, and therefore if you wanted to bake a loaf of bread you'd have to exercise both your patience and! your more energetic skills.

That is what I would want for the game, a situation where in order to achieve a goal you need to do several activities, some more active than others.

Hope that makes sense.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2018-11-11 13:01:17

Hi all,

After reconsidering the ideas being thrown up, after looking at how the game currently is, and after discussing it with the team, we have decided to continue on the present course we are on. thus, not building in more active versions of activities currently present. As dark mentioned drakor, i remembered that i had drakor as a good example as how a game can be enjoyable as well. So at present, more active versions of woodcutting etc won't be programmed right now.

And i should learn to don't jump the gun when i get exited, i see now, that now i jumped the gun, that i should write a message which is mostly the opposite from what i wrote earlier, my appologies for this guys.

Greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2018-11-11 18:46:36

Hello,
I love this game! It's very interesting and I enjoy playing it. I know it's harder to add features this soon in your coding life, you can take your time and release further versions of this game.

Best regards
Pranam
Don't forget to give me a thumbs up!