Once you have a few dragon slayings under your belt, we'd appreciate your thoughts on these questions. Feel free to answer within this forum or message me privately. 1. Is there any part of the game that you think could have been explained better when you were starting? 2. What do you think of the fee to recruit the Elf and Dwarf? 3. What do you think of the dice rolling? Would you like an option to turn off the dice rolling? Would you like there to be a log where you can see your past dice rolls? Thanks! And of course, any other thoughts are appreciated as well. --Alex

1: I think a tutorial would be good, I didn't even learn about focus until much later. Also attacking with bows **nullifies your shield bonus for the next round**! In addition guarding and obtaining feat turns should be explained sooner. 2: $5 is nice and cheap but this game needs more replayability before I would be willing to buy stuff. 3: A log does sound like a nice feature. Individual dice rolls aren't super important, but getting unlucky/lucky with equipment definitely makes the game more rng heavy then would be desired. I would reduce the variance and make it so bad equipment rolls increase the chance of getting better equipment in the future. Also on the subject of equipment, also guaranteed rare equipment should show the first circle completely replaced with ^ arrow so that you know what "rare" equipment means. Randomly I think you should rename cleave to critical hit or something similar since cleave doesn't actually allow you to deal AoEs at all which is what cleaving in games normally means. Starting playing last week, 16 fame.

The RNG in this is just out of control.... I missed 6 attacks in a row and the npc's land every hit. Its annoying you cant even progress without luck. I would love to see this game with some sort of more RPG system as in as you level up you can increase hit chance and stuff. Lets the fights be about stats, not luck rolls.... I want to enjoy this but every time I play I end up dieing instantly or making it to the end. There is no inbetween. There is no progress in this unless you can kill the dragon and use mana. I will keep looking back to see if you fix this. If not, good luck.

1. Is there any part of the game that you think could have been explained better when you were starting? I'm up to 'two white dragons' (So a total beginner, really) and the only thing so far is exactly what gets you fame. I have worked out that every dead dragon adds one fame, but I have n idea if anything else does, or if multiple dragons add more than one per run. 2. What do you think of the fee to recruit the Elf and Dwarf? I don't spend money on Kongregate at all, so my opinion should be considered in that light, but I have seen far more charged in other games for far less. That said, while I've enjoyed the game so far, I'm not sure it has massive replay value, so... I think the price is not bad for anyone who finds the game really compelling and intends to play for a while.. 3. What do you think of the dice rolling? Would you like an option to turn off the dice rolling? Would you like there to be a log where you can see your past dice rolls? I like the dice rolling. Reminds me of the tabletop games I played rather too much of in my younger days. I see no point in a log, however, as I'm not sure it would add anything concrete to the game. A tally of monsters killed throughout your career would be a more interesting option, IMO. Hope you find this feedback useful :)

I managed to slay two white dragons to give you an idea of my progress. 1. The game is adequately explained, in fact any more explanation would be off putting since the game is intutive and easy to understand. If anything the game is overexplained from the begining. For example, the way health potions work is too obvious to bother explaining in my opinion. 2. I am okay with the fee, it takes a lot of effort to make a game. 3. The dice rolling is great, yes turning off the dice rolling for faster game playing would be nice. Negative, a log of dice rolls is as exiciting as watching paint dry. 4. I found the very first run the most difficult. The game is addicting, but gets boring after an hour or so.

Hey RogueSword, First of all, sorry for that long post (and for my english), and TYVM for this game, I’m not used to give feeback on games, this one make me feel to write about. 1/ Agree with adding quick explanation about focus and guarding system. I think that feat explanation is quite clear (imho). 2/ I think the fee is fair enough, and the add of game features while your fame rises keep game interest up. 3/ I like the dice rolling system/effect. You still can add an option to turn it off, but I think this is a great part of this game « spirit » and « identity ». You still can add stats system (or log) I don’t think it’ll improve the game experience. Agree with timeracers about « Cleave ». Maybe make campaign progression clearer on campaign page. Maybe change slightly the « super rare » gear system. 2 propositions : - have a roll on a simple +1/ +2 / +3 table (with equal chance to have any) and add an automatic +6 (making your lowest super rare gear a +7 item ). This way you feel that it’s a very rare stuff. - keep your actual system but, if « no improvement » and if not « no improvement possible » (if you already have a gear from +1 to +8 AND you roll under or equal) you gain an automatic +1. I prefer this one since you’re sure to have a reward for having remove a dangerous threat near the village (and if you didn’t need a reward, it’s still enjoyable to rip Mummy or Lich off) while it does not change so much an important aspect of this game (imho) : Because, of course this game is RNG based (random dungeon with diceroll based interactions) BUT NOT ONLY. You still have high choice on « where do I go ? » : - « Will I try to slay this Lich with 6 Ghouls while I’m only stuffed with 2 scrolls and 1 hp potion ? », Of course you can, but you’re not forced in (the first proposition on super rare gear may change this). - « Will I go in this wraiths/specters nest with only 1 fire scroll, while I can go straight to the Lair with my potions and 11 haste scrolls ». - … You still have high choice on « how do I handle this room » : - Leap, firebugs, spores… add a great variety of strategy - Monsters behaviour too : Having a +8 or +9 sword or shield, I really enjoy keeping spellcasters alive and guarding in the middle of monsters. Sometimes I get hit, usually I counter attack while monsters die in spellcasters fireballs. - … Item bonuses, Guarding, focusing, stealth system (especially with multiple entries room) … all reduce the weight of RNG. I really enjoy your work, it’s a nice and beautiful 15/20 min roguelike you can repeat with new features. There are not so much game like this on kong, and this one is pretty well done (npc chats are fun too). Of course you’re free to do what you want with your work but if I may, please, by the holy names of G.Gygax and S.Jackson, don’t include things that will change deeply the subtil mix of simplicity, randomness and strategy you’ve managed to create.

(3). I think you could tighten up the dice rolling logic. Sometimes dice are rolled for explosions that have 100% chance to kill, and sometimes for enemies that are already dead.

1) I didn't learn what focus was until 4 dragons in i think. I also didn't learn about guard. but to be fair I also haven't ever desired to guard either even after knowing what it does. I learned quickly that using the bow negates shielding but I would have liked to know that before getting pummeled. 2) compared to other games that charge you exorbanent amounts for a minor temporary buff, this reasoanbly costed content add on is nice. i also like that you gave free players a way to unlock it as well is really nice. 3) I think its very reminiscent of table top rpgs which i know is the ascetic that the game is going for. i would love to have the option to turn it off. i have no desire to see a log of past rolls as that would likely only give people the opportunity to try and talk about why they think the rng system is rigged against them, which i hate reading in comments.

One question: When I got to level 3, there was a message about a "feat pool," but as far as I can see, there's no change to my stats, abilities, or anything else. What is a "feat pool," and how does increasing it help? This game appears to suffer from a lack of character upgradeability. You can keep your levels and experience when you die, but those levels/exp. do very little to help you.

1. Personally I think the game is easily understood. It's either easy to grasp or can quickly be checked in the information available. I hit fame level 50 without any issue. I do have a D&D background so most directly made sense. 2. A fee for unlocking the other characters isn't unreasonable. I did unlock them the hard way which is much appreciated as an option. 3. I personally like the dice rolling but it as an option to speed things up might be better. Like I said, I'm at 50 and it slowly starts to bore me. I'm now leveling the other characters which is still somewhat fun. Maybe an endless dungeon with randomized rooms, eventually with difficulty options (no room preview, no sneaking etc..) might add some spice again.

Feat pool???

If you check rules/combat, it is all explained there.

> *Originally posted by **[flazmort](/forums/979845/topics/1774448?page=1#12944447)**:* > One question: When I got to level 3, there was a message about a "feat pool," but as far as I can see, there's no change to my stats, abilities, or anything else. What is a "feat pool," and how does increasing it help? This game appears to suffer from a lack of character upgradeability. You can keep your levels and experience when you die, but those levels/exp. do very little to help you. The heroes gain skills as they go up levels. The skills are shown in the Rules and the Characters Sheets. The Character Sheets are a bit hidden - if your're in a room, click your hero's portrait to access the sheets. Going up levels also increases your Feat ability. From the rules: You will occasionally trigger a feat. A feat is an extra turn where there are some significant tactical advantages. During a Feat: Take up to 2 actions. Any combat action ends the feat. You have a pool of L attack bonuses, where L is your hero's level. You gain a 1-5 attack bonus against randomly selected monsters until either your pool of bonuses is used up or all monsters in the room have been assigned a bonus. Feats are triggered in these ways "Heroic Strike": You roll your maximum attack roll. (Against dragons, either your max roll or one less.) "Massive Hit": Your attack total is at least 7 more than the defender’s maximum defense total (max roll plus modifiers). Feats are never triggered from hasted attacks or counterattacks. You cannot do Feats until they are unlocked. See Fame Guide.

Just killed 2 green dragons, and decided to look at the forums. 1. Is there any part of the game that you think could have been explained better when you were starting? Mostly, the basics are fine. I didn't really find any issues with figuring out what does what. The help guide is great. On that note, a way to access the character sheets outside of the map view, and a constant link to the help page will... uh... help. 2. What do you think of the fee to recruit the Elf and Dwarf? People who make good games need to eat too! It's not perfect, but one cannot complain. 3. What do you think of the dice rolling? Would you like an option to turn off the dice rolling? Would you like there to be a log where you can see your past dice rolls? Rolling is great. Currently, it feels very chance-y and very Rogue-like. I might try a "no dice" run, but it's nice as it is. I can see that some might like a log, but since it doesn't affect the current roll, it's more a personal thing. However, it might be useful to display the total in the Hit/Miss animation. Like "10vs 9 Hit!" or "9 vs 17 Miss!". This makes it easier for the player to access the resolution - although it doesn't really make any difference, it removes the need to track and quickly add the various bonus for a half-dozen (monster) attacks.

Hello Lvl 17 FAME here 1.As far as understanding the game from early on, I would say that objective was mostly accomplished. Like a few above me it took awhile to get the feat system andI am fairly intelligent, but some times not super observant. 2.The fee for the extra playables is fine with me. I normally would go the hard route, but when I feel developers put real effort into solid executionI prefer to pay. On that note I know this is a tangent but, I have stated in chat that if the game was more scalable and had more depth I wouldnt balk at a monthly fee. 3.Af far as RNG is concerned, I love RNG I know most people don't and feel it affects stragety but look at it this way, when a football coach calls a play he does so knowing that his players are not garaunteed to execute properly, or out play a weeker opponent, somtime mistakes happen, sometimes inferior players have shining moments. The two down sides to RNG in this game are as mentioned above me are of course bad runs of luck when fighting and whenn looting gear. I propose a way to make that sting not feel so bad. a) If you roll really low ( what constitutes really low would be up to the developers) more than a couple times in the same room you character would gain a small amount of experience points. this actually makes sense in reality, due to the phenomenon of "learning from our mistakes" the xp boost would be small and not game altering, and would at least take a bit of sting away from the string of bad luck. b) In the constant bad gear rolls, you could do give one of three "consolation prizes"after a preselected number of fails to upgrade gear, the player would recieve a small exp boost if the developer choose a small number of failures as the trigger. Or the player recieves a random scroll if the developer chooses a more moderate number of fails as the trigger. Or if the developer chooses a much larger preselected # of fails as the trigger, then the player finds a mana pot in the chest. These changes would def romove the sting and in case of the gear failures, the player would still feel like something had been accomplished, as each failure to upgrade works towards getting a consolation prize.

part 2 # of fails for the trigger the player would reciecve a mana pot. These changes would def romove the sting and in case of the gear failures, the player would still feel like something had been accomplished, as each failure to upgrade works towards getting a consolation prize.

It seemed well explained on the whole. The feat bonus could probably be a little clearer; not sure how to make it clearer, just that it'd be helpful if it was a bit clearer. It'd be nice to know what campaign and tournament mode do before getting there. Game is getting a bit stale already (only up to fame 8 or so), so I'm wondering whether it'd be worth playing to get to them. The dice rolling seems fine; though I imagine if I kept playing it might get a bit tedious. The combat rolls are more interesting than the loot rolls. Not sure why; maybe because the combat rolls are opposed so seeing them helps you better understand the system, whereas any piece of loot simply will be what it will be, and other than knowing the expected distribution the spinning doesn't matter. edit: one thing I just thought of: I'd like to be able to see what the odds of an enemy hitting ME are. Since calcing the odds from the bonuses is difficult.

As a non-new player, I fully agree on the bad gear RNG being painful. Getting hit 3+ times by the same enemy is bad, but not having a good sword is even worse because it makes you fight longer and get hit more by every single enemy. On one particularly bad run, I had to enter the ruins with my villagers' +2 sword, having used up all my resources on the way there, and even with focus and adrenaline my survival was down to pure luck. Since I'm not too excited about getting XP in for something I didn't do, I have a few other ideas to fix this: a) On the first kill of every level, upgrade the weakest piece of equipment by 1. In my example above, the +2 sword would have become +4 by the time it reached the ruins, if it was lagging behind. (Following this rule strictly, the first dragon kill may upgrade an item from +7 to +8.) b) Keep track of bad spins, defined as getting the lowest value available on the left wheel, and use this to form an unluck or pity stat. Instead of immediate consolation prizes, you can tie this to later events in the dungeon, such as special attack chance or even getting extra items from later chests. c) Give additional bonuses for combat with bad equipment (because it's more heroic?). You could have the fury/rage mechanic (get buffed when hit/drinking potions) trigger based on your equipment. Or you could have reverse Feats where you fail a roll by 7 or more points and automatically go into guard. ---- Back to the original questions: 1. An explanation of the combat bonuses (focus, adrenaline) should be made available on the side with the other info buttons, at least up to Fame 5 or so. Also to follow on from zlefin's edit, it's not obvious that all enemies roll d10s to hit. 2. The unlock fee is reasonable, but I enjoyed the challenge of unlocking them through free play. 3. The dice rolling really clarifies a lot for beginners, but after that it just makes most of the turns slow and boring. It would be nice to have a fast-forward option where all animations are sped up equally, or skip the rolling and just show the dice values, or even just a button to skip everything (only showing the Hit and Miss splats at the end). Less drastically, you could roll both attack and defense dice simultaneously and display the results for longer, removing the need to skip defense rolls.

Passionate tabletop and boardgame player here, digging this topic out to share some feedback. I really like the game and especially the Reaper Miniatures (so cool you got the license for them). Started playing early this month and climbed up in fame pretty fast (close to 70 now), but still feel kinda new to the game. -1. Is there any part of the game that you think could have been explained better when you were starting? Over all the game does pretty well on introducing new players, every new rule gets explained in a pop up feeling just like a tutorial and even later on you can always click any of the tips on the right side. You should always take a look at these tool tips to get a quick overview of the room, as something like heal potions, scrolls and so on are listed, if the room contains any. Hovering over any of the tooltips also highlights the hex it refers to. It would be really great to have also prepared spells on this list, so you can easily see what will happen and which mage prepared which spell. It's easy to lose track of the spells, especially with summons and enlarges - it should be way easier to see where the summon will happen and which mage enlarges which monster. Feats were not that easy to understand and I'm not really sure I understood them completely, but that isn't much of a problem imo. What I really miss is an easy way to navigate all the windows with useful information. It took me really long to find the screen that lists all your progress, XP-bonus and so on, as it is only available to the pause screen or the tournament list. Why don't I see this screen when I click my name in the upper right corner? I'd also like to see the xp-bars before I choose a hero and it would be good, if the game mode only starts after the hero selection so I could check the starting equipment without starting the game right away. That's just a minor problem, a major one is the availability of all the informative screens that needs some rework. The play info is one example, but I also dislike that I return to the home screen after looking into the rules via the pause menu. I totally don't get the Mana Fairy, because there is no explanation at all. It seems to refresh your mana, but obviously only when you used all mana up. I can't say if this will be free or some kind of premium content, so I don't use mana at all and keep it, until I build up a higher XP-Bonus. Anyway, if the refill is free, I may miss several refills, but that's the point: I just don't know how it works. -2. What do you think of the fee to recruit the Elf and Dwarf? It's totally ok but I doubt it's of much interest for many players. I was really eager to reach Fame 50 to get all characters and as there is not that much content to unlock I am personally not interested in paying money to reduce the unlocks even more. I don't know if it was a bug, but I was able to play the dwarf and elf both once before reaching Fame 50. That totally teased me to unlock them, as this small preview was pretty exciting. -3. What do you think of the dice rolling? Would you like an option to turn off the dice rolling? Would you like there to be a log where you can see your past dice rolls? I like the dice rolling but wouldn't mind an option to skip the animations. I doubt I would use it, as the dice rolling causes some good tense in my opinion, but it wouldn't hurt to have that option. I would appreciate some kind of dice log and even more an action log, as that could solve the problem with losing track of spell preparations. How about a button to change the tooltips in the right side with an action log (and vice versa ofc)? ---------------------- With some more playing time I'm a bit torn about the experience. It's really slow and so they are very long periods feeling as if there was no progress at all. On the other hand it's pretty much the only long term motivation, so it's ok to take a lot of time. The most important level to reach seems to be 10 for every character, as this unlocks/buffs the personal skills (Cleave to 30% with Full Swing, Uppercut on 4 or less and Leap attack with 50% confuse). All skills thereafter are really helpful but not as important as the lvl 10 skills with one big exception: The Swordsmans Riposte on lvl 16. I'm highly convinced this skill might be crucial for the Humans gameplay, as he is the glass cannon Hero with the highest risk and consumption of Health potions and Scrolls. Otherwise this skill could be way too powful against dragons, if you get it too early, but still I would consider to give it at level 12 or 14 instead of 16. At least I think it doesn't compare to the others lvl 16 skills, which are way less important (enraged worm could be great, maybe it's able to help more with dragons, but the normal worm is more than enough for most uses). So far for now, I guess I will revive some more old topics ;)

MisterSinister made lots of great points - I'd very much like the option to toggle dice rolls, things do get very slow when one has >25 dragons to clobber. And the enraged worm is great to conserve potions when you're doing runs. It keeps those pesky giants at bay. It's mostly useless against dragons, but good to keep a dragon mage from enlarging everything while you're busy otherwise.

Been playing for a week. Are at nine blue dragons. I come from a background of playing a lot of tabletop roleplaying games and board games. > Is there any part of the game that you think could have been explained better when you were starting? The game is intuitive, but I had to do some reading up on the secondary condition of critical success. Critting while rolling the maximum of the die is intuitive. Rolling X over the total points the enemy's defence + highest roll isn't. I never understood that I could jump out of the cave and then _come back in stealth mode_ until I read up on it. That mechanic is also overpowered and makes the game less exiting when there is only 1-2 enemies left. Loosing defense bonus if using the bow was something I had to read up on, as some monsters gave negative modification. If I had the option to look at a history with all the mechanics explained, that would be something I would use more often. I never understood that I could use the undo turn, until I saw it on the forum and read up on it. If I don't use or get to try the ability right after I read about it in the game, I will forget it. I got how the AI worked pretty quickly, because of the explanations. The purple worm; I had to read up on it to truly understand why it popped up. > What do you think of the fee to recruit the Elf and Dwarf? You want money to develop the game, I get that. I think it's fair. Pay or play to get things, that's pretty common. > What do you think of the dice rolling? Would you like an option to turn off the dice rolling? Would you like there to be a log where you can see your past dice rolls? Oh, god. Gimme the log. Give me a summary with an option to read more about each mechanic for each roll. That would be excellent. I'm a "learn by doing" first, and then I read more. I started to read (and pay for the game) at about level 20. I paid to get mana mostly to encourge you developers, because it's a good looking game with some nifty mechanics in it. The dice rolling is neat because it enforce the d8, d10, d12 mechanic. Dunno if non-RPG people understand the concept of dice that haven't six sides.

Agreed on everything in this comment, but I'd just like to highlight this one part: > The purple worm; I had to read up on it to truly understand why it popped up. For most of the mechanics mentioned before this, you could click everything you see and you'll find the bow explanation, the undo button, how the exits work, etc.. However, when it comes to random spawns, dungeon generation and bonuses, the information is tucked away in the Rules page where players might not be interested to read through, and there's nothing a player can do purely in-game to figure it out. And this is rather important information for more advanced players, so that they can know why something's happening rather than just reacting to it with intuition. While most of these explanations would be useless for beginners, it would be nice to have them slowly sprinkled into the game as the player gains experience. (Note for anybody reading the earlier comments on this thread: many of the issues mentioned have been fixed since December. Feats no longer use pools, animations have already been sped up, bad RNG is mitigated by trinkets and the altar, etc.)

One thing thats not really mentioned anywhere, Hits against the same numbers (Total, with modifiers) still count as hits. E.g. 15v15 will always let the attacker hit. There isn't even a coin flip, it just hits. It's like a double edged-sword. Some things that could also be better explained are the Cellar and Attic fame unlocks. The bonus they bring isn't to make the game easier at the start, it's so you can plan which first level rooms to go into. Got a +1 or even a +0 sword, but a +2 bow and shield from starter gear? Then upon entering the dungeon, instead of just walking into a room, attempt to find any sword racks. Not chests. Chests are a big gamble in this, that could result in simply getting the wrong weapon, Which, I think a lot of people blame for being unfair. Weapon racks essentially half the risk from the chance of weapon and upgrade level, to just the upgrade level. Prioritising weapon racks is an essential.

1.) The focus stat and the fact that using your bow drops your shield bonus need to be explained because they often make a difference in combat. 2.) I don't mind at all. I think it's fair to ask for a fee for extra rewards in game, and what's better is you can earn the Elf and Dwarf at Fame 50. 3.) The dice rolling needs to have a mercy system. In one game, I had to burn through all of my scrolls because my sword and bow were stuck at +3 and +4 which made it very hard to hit dragons. For some more context, I was fighitng two dragons with +10 defense. The RNG aspect make the game a challenge, but when the system randomly decides you aren't going to get decent rolls, one after another, it makes it a pain to play.

> *Originally posted by **[SkyDragoon](/forums/979845/topics/1774448?page=1#13333643)**:* > 3.) The dice rolling needs to have a mercy system. In one game, I had to burn through all of my scrolls because my sword and bow were stuck at +3 and +4 which made it very hard to hit dragons. For some more context, I was fighitng two dragons with +10 defense. The RNG aspect make the game a challenge, but when the system randomly decides you aren't going to get decent rolls, one after another, it makes it a pain to play. 2 dragons is still pretty short, so you can expect RNG to play a greater part. You can play for lucky loot/kills, and even if you fail you get XP that levels up your hero. Later in the game, you get more options to save you from bad rolls and equipment (that weren't there when this thread was created). Since you have access to the ruins, you can also treat this as a good exercise in foraging. Weapon chests in the ruins are very likely to offer you an improvement over +4. Sneak your way to equipment and potions, and use the scrolls to get away if you're spotted. This strategy is very important for surviving in bad games, but it might not be comfortable.to play.