v1.2.13
Sorry about the long delay. I had a computer meltdown last week, and, after several attempts to fix it, realized it was the motherboard, and had to suck it up and buy a brand-new computer. With Vista. Ugh.... Anyways, on to the notes.
Save functionality - I have promised a save feature for the game for a long time (and been urged to include it by several people), and even hinted at it with greyed out Save and Load buttons on a couple of screens. I have resisted putting it in so far for 2 reasons: 1) The file structure was constantly in flux as new features were being added, and 2) the impact to difficulty made me wary of implementing it.
Reason 1 has largely been addressed. While the game is probably around 75% complete (closer to 90% in terms of game mechanics), the file structure looks like it has finally settled in, and I won't be making any more drastic changes - solid enough for save files. However, reason 2 worries me a little bit. If you are able to save and reload at will, the difficulty factor drops in orders of magnitude. Killed by a nasty Dweller?? No problem, reload!! Instead, I have a small workaround...
So, in order to show good faith that I am working on a solution, you can back up your characters. When in town, hit the Save Game button, and your character, stats, experience, equipment, gold, and skills will be saved.
Please note that when you Save your character, the game immediately ends - saving the game keeps your character for later when you return. Similarly, when you load a character, the save file is destroyed (you can of course resave and come back later - the point is that there are not multiple backups out there). This feature currently is meant so you can pause and come back later - not to reload when you die.
HOWEVER, this touches on the other problem, and PLEASE sound in if you have an opinion. Save game files, destroyed upon load or not, can EASILY be edited by an experienced person. In addition, I am an amateur programmer, and not really sure how to encrypt a save file (or even simply save and retrieve in Hex), so all my save files (and data files) are plain ASCII text files. Not really very secure, and what's to stop you from simply giving yourself 50 strength if you want it??
I've gotta mull over this a bit and make a decision soon. In the meantime, I've thrown you a small bone - you can (for now) permanently back up that character you've been playing!
More to come.
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v1.2.11
NPCs - No longer will every creature you meet in the ruins be out to kill you. There are rumors of some who will pledge to provide you continuing aid on your quest. But you must seek them out from where they hide (or are held captive).
Monster Generators - Called 'Summoning Obelisks', these strange, stone artifacts seems to draw creatures to them from the void. Destroying one will stop new monsters from appearing on a given level. Currently, these are an optional kill for the player - they may prefer having a constant stream of baddies to kill; others may prefer to end the menace once and for all. I need to think on it a bit, but I may require each level's stone to be destroyed as part of the victory conditions.
Extensive bug fixes, courtesy of Tormod. Keep 'em coming :)
Bug fix - Exploding creatures no longer report hurting themselves in their death explosion.
Bug fix - Removed some duplicate messages.
Bug fix - Standing still or performing some other non-move action on a damage tile (fire, acid) now properly continues to damage you.
Bug fix - Certain duplicate items should now id properly when another of the same type is used.
Bug fix - Removed an ambiguous teleport message. Added distinct message for town portal scrolls.
Bug fix - In situations where multiple gold drops were on the same tile, the player would only autopickup the top one. The has been changed to autopickup all the gold on the space. Treasure with physical weight will continue to be ignored by gold autopickup, unless you toggle autopickup-all on (@ key).
Bug fix - The correct icon is displayed in the Windows taskbar when certain windows are open. Also, each window will now show up in the taskbar to avoid 'unretrievable' windows.
Bug fix - Fixed a message display 'lag' with trying to remove cursed items.
Balance - Altered the rate at which monsters would spawn on each level. In general the spawn rate has been reduced across the board. Some levels have no respawn, meaning you can clear them once.
Balance - Toned down out-of-depth treasure drops. Originally there was a chance that ANY item could potentially drop at any time (albeit a small chance). This resulted in a game or 2 where I had the most powerful sword drop on the first level, and I mowed my way through the game. Now, there is a cap on the max power of an item that can be generated. Out of depth items will still drop, but only to a certain level.
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v1.2.4
New mage skill - f(R)eezing burst - This tier 3 mage skill will attempt to freeze your nearby opponents with a sudden burst of cold. Monsters get a chance to resist, but this is reduced by higher experience levels and higher player levels. Some creatures are immune. Creature frozen solid cannot act until they break free or melt. Currently, the spell is selective and does not freeze your pets (might change later, still debating). Also, in the next patch, the spell will synergize with other spells, such as exploding shot and fireball - these skills may potentially shatter the enemy (instant death), or melt them (extra damage), though the final code iteration is still being worked out. Costs a flat 20 mana per use. (Note: the mage skill trees are now complete.)
New rogue skill - s(m)oke bomb - This tier 2 rogue skill will throw a small capsule at an enemy, exploding and covering the immediate area with a thick cloud of smoke. Enemies caught in the smoke will be confused, and wander confused in the thick clouds. In addition, enemies blinded by the smoke cannot make ranged attacks, making this an effective way to deal with ranged attackers. Finally, note that if you wander into the smoke, or use it on an enemy close by, you will be unable to see as well! Smoke will dissapate over a short period of time. (Also note that the evil rogue skills have been rearranged to accomodate this skill, pushing poison blade to tier 3 with a bump in it's power).
Monsters (and pets) can now trigger (and be hurt) by hidden traps, exposing them. However, most are smart enough to avoid visible traps. Flying creatures are not affected (I might make fire affect flying creatures.)
Changed the Fire Elementals attack damage to be less variable.
Exploding shots damage calculation has been changed. Before, it was a formula based on the players level, but this seemed too weak. Now the explosion damage is based on the ranged weapon damage - better ranged weapons do more explosive damage.
More new graphics.
Another rework of the vision system (largely invisible to the player) in anticipation of the upcoming priest/rogue skill I promised 2 patch notes ago. (It IS coming, I just can't get it to work exactly like I want it to, yet.)
I have relented a bit on armor restrictions. Mages can now wear every type of armor except shield, and breastplates. They are still restricted to robes in the body armor slot. I found that mages were extremely vulnerable in the lower levels due to having less than half the armor of the other characters. I want the mage to continue to have the traditional armor penalty to offset the powerful ranged attack, but not quite so restrictive. Rogues can use all armor except shields, and clerics can use any armor.
In addition to the new skill coming, the next patch will hopeully have new skills you can purchase which are not in a skill tree. These will have no prerequisites, and will be purchasable by any class. The effects of these abilities will be more generalized, and will probably NOT be focused on combat, instead comprising non-combat and passive bonuses.
Swimming is now less deadly (but still ultimately lethal.)
Fixed a bug in Dominate that caused some creatures to not use their abilities.
Stealth mechanic tweaked a bit. Originally, there was a distance requirement to stealthing (the closer you are, the easier it is for monsters to hear you). Changed it so that you can stealth whenever there are no monsters in Line of sight.
Fixed some bugs where the cost of magic items was the same as the base cost.
(Yet again) tweaked poison values for traps.
Fixed a (not really) bug where creatures that fly could fly to areas that you couldn't get to would 'fall asleep' when they got too far away. This was intended from the start, but had 1 nasty side effect that I didn't foresee. If the random boss that was generated for a level could fly, it could fly somewhere unreachable (without the right tool) and you simply could not uncover the path to the next level. Technically, you could still find your way through other means, but I felt it was a bit harsh, so I changed it slightly. Now, flying creatures simply never go to 'sleep', so you may still have to hunt down that elusive creature.)
In the same vein, fixed a bug where boss creatures that died from means other than combat (eg, exploding) were not triggering the stair reveal.
Town portal scrolls can now be used to return to the dungeon. For example, if you used a town portal scroll on level 4 of the dungeon to return to town, and finish selling your items, you can use another scroll to return back to level 4. I may remove the level portals on levels 4, 8, 12, and 16, as this effectively makes them redundant (unless you really want to save the cost of a scroll), but for the present, they will remain.
Got a nice email from Tormod H. with some suggestions:
Name: Tormod H.
Comments: Bug/GUI/Feature (I want to):
* Press ESC to get out of help menu.
(Implemented)
* Not run far when monsters are visible (I use mouse to move on laptop - no keypad)
(I can certainly add this. Say, when you get within 3 spaces of a monster a mouse click will only move you 1 space at a time?? Or would you prefer a toggle on mouse click where you can either fast travel, or use the mouse a click at a time on demand??)
* Teleport back where I cast Scroll of Return (ok, found the "town portal" at a level.)
(I am adding this feature in the next patch!!)
* Ability to look (shift+left mouse) at shrines/altars, traps, portals, items...
(Implemented)
* How do I save? Can I save? Help doesn't say how (as far as I can see). There is an option to load, but I found no way to save. Should be a choice on exit.
(This IS coming, as you can see from the greyed out buttons. It hasn't been put in before due to the fact that the feature list and what would have to be saved was constantly changing. But, I am approachinga point where I think the features are getting finalized, so you should see this very soon. Also, I am debating whether to save the entire game, a la Nethack, or maybe just save the character.)
Tormod also found bugs in my name entry procedure and item selling routine. (When you sell an item which is unidentified, the vendor identifies it for you and tells you what it would have been worth.)
Changed portals mechanics slightly so that when you teleport, you actually appear directly on the portal. This allows you to pick up item which may have dropped on them. (You may need to portal back, but this is an unavoidable side effect for now.).
Added a message when monsters die from environmental effects (such as acid or fire) so it's a little more obvious why they just disappeared.
Changed the graphics for non-gold treasure to a generic treasure chest. (I prefer this to making them autopickup as some treasure has considerable weight, and you must consider whether to carry it or not.)
Fixed a bug in certain commodity items not getting identified properly.
Removed the annoying "XX can't use that item!!" multi-spam which appears in your message log when you are browsing the store. (1 will still appear, for now.)
Fixed a bug (I think) with autopick-up'ing gold when its not the top item on a space.
Fixed a fairly serious bug involving holding down keys while using magic.
Thanks Tormod! (I put a little thanks to you in game for sending me all the bug notes, which has been very helpful. Hope you don't mind!)
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v1.1.96
New content - I won't list the details - this is the kind of stuff you find as you play.
Slight change in view size
Resolution on many icons improved. Many icons improved in appearance.
Overhaul to the display engine. No longer will a monster obscure the tile it is on, or items they may stand on.
Flight is now in the game, both for the player, and monsters, so beware of creature you could previously funnel through trees, or escape through water.
Numerous (continuous) balance tweaks.
Some creatures (notably bosses) now have a chance to drop preset items of higher value than random drops.
Added a description box to the town screen so you can see if an item is an upgrade or not.
Loot rate increased.
Higher quality loot appears more often (cursed items appear slightly less.)
Food made a little more forgiving. (I am debating whether to even keep this in the game - any thoughts??)
A note on the new scrolls of enchantment: Scrolls of enchantment normally work just as you would expect - they improve the damage on weapons, or the defense rating of armor. However, they also work on some items with special properties. For example, if you use a scroll of enchantment on a piece of armor which provides a health bonus, the size of the health bonus will increase. A weapon which stuns the enemy would have the stun improved in duration and length. Some bonuses cannot be improved, so be wary - armor which provides immunity to blindness, for example, can't make you 'extra-immune'. Simply put, experiment!! Bonuses are capped regardless of the type of enchant.
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v1.1.92
New class - I have added a 'generalist' class - the adventurer - for those so inclined. The adventurer starts with average stats, can use all weapons and armor, and starts with 2 unassigned skill points, rather than the other class's single assigned skill and better allocated stats. The drawback is that the adventurer gains none of the class perks enjoyed by the specialists- he does not get the extra damage or health of a fighter, the extra ranged attack and defense of a rogue, the increased mana regen and arcane spell damage of a mage, or the increased mana regen and improved heals of a priest (and so on). So essentially, the adventurer gains an extra skill point as a trade off for the class bonuses.
New objective - To successfully pass any of the levels, you must now hunt down a 'level boss', and successfully defeat him to reveal the path to the next level. Some levels have a predetermined boss that is always the same - most have a random, out-of-depth (slightly higher) monster who will present more of a challenge than the common monsters. Once defeated, you will receive a message that the stairs/portal has opened. Of course, you could always find the stairs without defeating the boss....
Re-enabled turn penalty for switching weapons, equipping or removing armor, etc. In the last few patches, making any equipment changes was a free move. However, I feel like taking off/equipping/switching armor should penalize you a turn; otherwise, it's too easy to simply carry around appropriate armor for each encounter. However, this penalty does not apply in town, and the inventory will not close and update the main screen if you makes changes in town.
Skeletons now have a life-span. After a predetermined time, they will collapse into a pile of bones.
Some balance changes have occurred. (And I apologize for the up and down nature of the difficulty. I now have the combat mechanics finally working how I want them, and am trying to get the balance fixed.)
Pets have been improved.
New monsters.
You can dig out rubble, chop down trees, etc, with the appropriate tools. At certain points in the game, you can bypass obstacles and monsters by cutting through forests or rock. (Note that even if you are not skilled at wielding an axe (meaining you can't equip it), you ARE allowed to carry one with you and use it to chop down trees - ANY axe will do, be it hatchet, battle-axe, or two-handed war-axe.)
Initial code for new skill in place, more details to follow.
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v1.1.87
New fighter skill - (P)halanx - Phalanx mode is a mana free toggle which places the character in a defensive stance, giving a considerable increase to defensive rating (armor and evasion) at the cost of slowing the player slightly. Please note that this works well with (q)uickness, which essentially nullifys the speed penalty. I am planning on having the other skills work in combination as well (for example, the upcoming tier 3 frost skill will synergize with some of the other spells.)
I have reassigned a few of the other key assignments in order to make room for new skills, and make others a little more obvious, so please check the help file if you are getting a weird/no response to a button press.
The fighter skill tree has been rearranged. This was due to the fact that cleave was simply too good a skill for tier 1. Cleave has been moved to tier 3, and the alignment assignments have been shuffled.
Stunning blow has been renamed to Char(g)e Stun, but it works identically to before. This is due to the following change:
Char(g)e attack is now a direct upgrade to Charge Stun (Stunning Blow) and completely replaces it. The key assignment for both is G.
Cleaned up large portions of the code in an effort to improve performance. (Primarily AI) I haven't experienced any bad performance on my computers so far except when I have many pets out. Changes should help a bit, but this still needs some more optimization before it is truly where I want it.
Fixed a bug where player could use exploding shots whether they had paid for it or not.
More standardization to the item generator and base item list. Renamed some items to bring them in line with the base item naming conventions.
The store now carriers a complete basic set of armor and weapons for all classes at the start of the game. The item mix sold will still change over time.
The store now offers ammunition for bows and guns as a standard function. This may change, as it essentially turns 'Conjure Ammo' into just a way to save a little gold. Alternatively, I may change conjure ammo to produce better quality, or magic ammo.
Next patch I am planning to put in a new skill for dealing with ranged attackers. It will either be a rogue skill, or an evil cleric skill.
Balance is proving to be very difficult to get a grasp on as I improve item randomization. Spells tend to have a set formula for calculating damage, while weapons and armor are randomly generated, so its hard
v1.1.85
Comprehensive new item generator with tons of new item properties. Now, all items are generated from a base item with a chance at an extra ability like regeneration, fire damage, poison resistance, stunning, etc. Likely to be bugs, as this is a pretty big addition, but I think the majority are worked out. Adds a huge amount of depth that the game was lacking.
New command - (x) will now switch between a main and back-up melee weapon. This is especially useful for rogues to use a dagger for max damage on a stealth attack, and then switch to a better weapon for melee, though any class will benefit.
New Visual Cues - I hate having the message log cluttered with a message for every weapon swing when a monster is resistant or weak to an attack. Instead, I have removed the messages (you can still see the damage you do and infer whether an attack is effective or not) and instead added different animations for each attack. An entirely missed attack looks different from a normal hit, which in turn looks different from a critical hit, which in turn looks different from a resisted attack. Hopefully this will make the gameplay a little more fluid. The cues will be updated to look 'prettier' in the future, but are currently fully implemented and will let you know how you are doing without having to review the message log constantly.
In line with the new randomized item attributes system, I have cleaned up and standardized the base items in the game. Now, there is a clear, clean progression of each level of base item, and the relationships are pretty standard. For example Iron armor is a set amount better than Copper armor, and a standard price based on material, as well. Each individual piece of armor will increase a certain amount per level (ie, if iron gauntlets are 2AC better than copper gauntlets, then you can assume an iron helmet is 2AC better than a copper helmet.) This also applies to weapons; ie, a mace of whatever construction/level will always be slightly inferior in damage to a sword of similar level/construction.
As promised in the prior patch, I have cleaned up the skill tree screen. Unpurchased skills appear in white, whereas purchased skills are colored. The screen can be controlled solely with the mouse or the keyboard, for those who prefer to play a certain way. Also, I've added a skill description box to the bottom of the screen for people who don't want to use a mouse and hover over the skill - simply move the selection to the skill you want to see described.
Reworked the skill 'save' system. Your stats now have a much greater (and uniform) effect on your skill saves. Saves are performed by comparing a 'challenge rating' versus the appropriate stat. Willpower is used to resist poisoning, and dexterity is used to avoid falling into a fire trap, for example.
Monsters can now appear in swarms, depending on type, so beware.
Out-of-depth loot can now be generated, but only rarely.
Added an experience bar to the bottom of the display.
Fixed a bug with target selecting (I think). (UPDATE: Truly fixed now)
Increased the total number of monsters, and the rate at which they spawn.
Fixed a bug with recentering screen properly after teleporting.
Brought the Fire Elementals damage in line with the mage Fireball spell.
Both skeletons and wolves have gotten a boost to their stats as they level.
Added a message log to the inventory screen for real-time inventory messages.
Fixed a bug/poor programming decision to allow certain actions to still occur when you are stunned (such as looking at the message log, selecting a new target, or checking your inventory). Previously, you couldn't do ANYTHING when stunned, not even toggle a health bar or reset the camera.
On the whole, the balance of the game has shifted. Certain classes seemed easy to me before, and are harder now, and vice versa. I will continue to balance things as features are added. In the meantime, thanks for playing, and I welcome any comments on how I could better balance or implement features.
v1.1.78
On second thought, maybe identifying entire classes of objects is a little too easy. I have switched over to the other method, where each individual item must be identified. There are still exceptions to this - for example, if you identify a trivial item, such as a piece of food, all occurances of that item will be identified. However, weapons and armor must be identified on an individual basis.
There are also a fairly large number of less obvious refinements to simply make things more streamlined. For example:
-Accessing Inventory screen while in town no longer kicks you back out of town when you close it. This is most useful when you are trying to decide what to buy in comparison with your current equipment. You still are kicked back into the game world if you perform an 'action' (drink a potion, read a scroll, eat, etc.).
-A 'real' item generation system is in place for generating enchanted/cursed items, rather than the earlier system where items were hard-coded as enchanted.
-(Hopefully) eliminated a bug which has been haunting me for at least the past 78 versions. Very sporadically, equipping an item will simply cause it to disappear; I still have no idea why exactly it occurs, especially since it doesn't seem to be reproducable in any obvious way. Hopefully my changes have addressed it, but let me know if you see it pop up again.
-Refinements to the Inventory/Character screen. (Subtle changes to displayed info; the Drop Item button has been removed, this function is performed by highlighting the item and pressing D; Made the background text darker for more contrast, etc.)
Added some new dungeon improvements.
Fixed a bug where the exit from a teleported could be in a tree.
Sorry not much 'fun' content today. The above changes constituted several hours work that really needed to be done. I am finally at a point where I am playing the game over and over with different classes and stopping and fixing bugs as I find them. I feel like the engine is becoming mroe refined with each pass, and I am ore able to focus on fun stuff rather than bug fixes.
Thank you for your time!!
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v1.1.76
Item Identification - Finally got this feature coded after mulling over it for some time. Similar to other systems you may be familiar with in roguelikes, items now start uinidentified. To identify an item, you must equip it in the case of weapons and armor, or use it in the case of scrolls, tools, etc. There are currently a few other ways to ID items ingame already, as well, including identification scrolls, and some random event type things that may help you out.
There are a few other things to note about the ID system. Once you have id'd an item, all other versions of that item become identified as well, INCLUDING cursed items. My rationale is that, if you have seen a normal version of an item, you should be able to tell if something is wrong with another of the exact same items. I MAY change this in the future, as it is an actual design consideration, and not a consequence of the way the system works. That being said, let the player beware of truly unidentified items the first time they use them.
The effects of cursed items are rather limited at the moment. Firstmost, as expected, you cannot unequip cursed weapons and armor; cursed weapons and armor have randomly reduced stats. Other items function a little bit differently.
There will likely be some bugs cropping up, as this it the first iteration; expect to see the system more refined in the next few days, as I have been pretty vigilant at coding over the past couple of weeks.
Also, I haven't forgotten my last patch notes - I am still working on making the skill tree more user-friendly.
Thanks,
B
v1.1.74
The Character/Inventory screen has undergone a minor upgrade as part of an effort to make the mouse entirely optional. On the character screen, up and down selects items in your pack, enter will perform the default action (drink a potion, equip a weapon, read a scroll, etc), and pressing D will drop the item. Equipped items have a hot key assigned which will remove the item and place it in your inventory (for example, press S to remove your shield, or O to remove your boots). Pressing ESC at any point will close the screen. All mouse functionality remains unchanged. You no longer have to tab to a box in order to give the correct input - the interface is a bit more forgiving and friendly. (Absolutely no need for the mouse unless you just like using it!!)
The skill select screen IS hotkeyed, but you have to press ALT+KEY to get your selection. I will be changing this in the very near future, but in the meantime, be aware you can select skills without the mouse as well. This will be a little more user-friendly in the next version.
In addition, I have decided to remove the turn penalty for equipping/unequipping weapons. The reason for this is twofold: First, causing this action to use a turn essentially requires the inventory to automatically close, so you can see the monsters take their turn. This is disorienting, and does not allow you to easily see the effects of changing armor pieces out. Second, I want the player to have different armor/weapons for different situations. The penalty for having all this equipment is expressed in weight, making the turn penalty superfluous. Yeah, it may be 'unrealistic'....but you ARE fighting giant rats, carnivourous plants, and fire breathing dogs, so....yeah...
Added some information to the character select screen that expressly indicates your starting skill based on class and alignment.
Refinements to the minimap. Stairs are more clearly marked, and resolution has been improved, removing some visual distortion.
Reorganized levels - you will face certain levels in a certain order, rather than randomly, in order to preserve at least a small amount of continuity. (ie, passing through the forest, you come to a lake; passing the lake you arrive at the first castle....Rather than passing the forest into a burning cave with a lake underneath, and another forest below that. However, the level layout remains randomizd. Expect to see the levels ultimately fit into something of a coherent adventure as time progresses and I add more levels.
Fixed some bugs, added a little bit of new content.
Today was mostly fixing UI and bugs; more 'content' to be added the next few versions/days.
Thanks!!
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