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Sudden idea I just had. Maybe the mages each have a talent that increases their staves range close to the original value. This would allow players who can't live without their 'boom stick' a way to get it up to range but they would have to sacrifice a valuable talent point. I feel like this would still solve all the issue I've brought up regarding staves vs range skill, but give players a way out of it as a costly option.
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Range 4 is a little too short, I think, without a bump in damage - 5 would be better. Also, enemy magic users still have the longer range (ouch).
Will let it stew for awhile. Balancing is always an ongoing process. My main concern is two parts. First I want the ranger, range skills, and range talents to be useful, so making ranged weapons have the best range is an obvious solution. Second, I want to encourage people to not play each class the same each time. The casters so far have been pretty much tied to their staves, there is never a reason to switch to another weapon you may find. With the range at 4 (maybe 5 if 4 is to short as your saying), there is more incentive to change weapons. A randomly generated game like this, in my opinion, should never have starting weapons that nullify any possible loot generated later.
Maybe yes, maybe no, balancing is a ongoing process. Even if this is entirely true (staves are definitely a straight up nerf), I don't see this as a problem. There are plenty of easy games out there for people to play, is it so bad if some of us developers want to make something challenging for a change? There are hundreds of people winning the game every day, just look at the stats tracking on the right, so its certainly not impossibly hard.
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My low health wizard was in a level 10 crypt, surrounded by 3 skeletons. I used thunder clap, and they were stunned, so I stepped to the side (diagonally), and then cast my lightning bolt, killing 2 of them.
This has been 2 turns.
At this point the third skeleton became unfrozen, moved, attacked and killed me all in one turn. Bug?
It might be, there have been some reports of enemies suddenly gaining super speed. I'm looking into it, this will help with the bug finding process. Thanks for the additional information!
I'd love to add some achievements when all the content, balance and bugs have been finished. Especially tricky ones like killing 5 enemies with a single lightning bolt or cleaving 6 maggots in the same turn with an axe. Thanks for the feedback!
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Frustrating that the Magic Classes have been reduced to Range 4 attacks, but enemy Magic users can attack from a range of 6...
But those poor melees have been dealing with this the whole time lol. Seriously though, balancing is ongoing so maybe 4 will end up being to short. My main goal is to make putting points into range a viable skill path and to make the ranger have some unique selling points. If the staves were left as is the ranger would just be a weak mage that uses ammo. I also want to make it more tempting to drop your staff as a caster halfway through and starting cross training into some other form of attack. The classes in this game are not really intended to be played straight through to the end game with no variation. Your encouraged to branch out as you find items and books.
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JackVermicelli: ofcourse the monsters seem to appear out of nowhere. do you think you are the only one who sometimes is not detected? in the case of skeletons btw there is an even better explanation: some of the bones lying around got up to attack you.
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did you get name yendor from rogue or nethack? It's been a while since I last retrieved the amulet of yendor but its not a name I will likely ever forget.
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Some of the dialogue with merchants and trainers is tedious. For example, having to click multiple times to buy a skill for 25 gp, or having to click each dart to sell when I have dozens.
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My loading screen only reaches 98% then stops entirely. I don't know if this is a bug or a problem on my end. I've refreshed and exited browser but still having the same problem.
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So I've been paying attention to Watabou's creation of Pixel Dungeon and all the remakes/remixes/soft/shattered/goblin/etc. variants. One thing I really like that has come out is a town to start in (aka, level 0). It offers a healer, a shop, and now mini-quests. This concept would put this game 'over the top', and would allow players to gear up and go back into the dungeon. Combine that with a scroll of town portal (Diablo-style), and you've got a masterpiece. [+] this if other players would like to see this implemented.
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Can confirm necromancer over powered. ring of flight +1 wizardy robe 2 book shelves on the first floor 4 on the second
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It really seems like enemies can appear out of nowhere, from places they shouldn't've been able to get to. I.e., I think the game cheats.
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Fun game! It's really a great game, but I'd like another 'version'.
I'd really like a more 'rpg' or 'rogue-like' version where I can keep SOMETHING from my previous progress to help me.
This is the goal of my next project. I want to maintain similar combat mechanics, character progression and equipment but take the higher level design in the complete opposite direction. What I mean by this is I want to do an open world game, with no permadeath (though some kind of penalty for dying), and a significantly extended game length. I want to include towns, quests, proper NPCs and a real sense of exploration, discovery and progression. So much more in the direction of a classic open world RPG like the original fallout series, ultima, elder scrolls etc. I think its important that this game retain its core design principles (short games, permadeath, very hard), and then do something completely different with the next project.
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This game is so awesome- I still havent beaten it, but the dev is so nice and the game itself is so good and still has so much potential- I can't wait to see what the end of the dungeons like!
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Ideas for the missing rogue abilities: lockpicking (requires stealth), blink (stealth), mental fortitude, shroomology, (so he has the passive abilities of the others classes)
Good ideas, lock picking has been mentioned quite a few times. To make up for those cases where you don't get enough treasure vaults spawned maybe it could be something like Treasure Hunter: lets you pick locks and doubles the gold you find. Shroomology I want to keep for just the warrior (I want to remove it from barbarian), to give the warrior tome some useful things to encourage people to cross train into it. Mental fortitude is actually a great idea, the rogue definitely needs more passives. Also not blink but a sprint ability is in the works (functionally its nearly the same thing). Thanks for the feedback!
The main strategy I use is once I hit ice or lava, I immediately stop trying to clear floors completely and just race for the stairs popping all my stockpiled consumables like a mad man. I'm not sure if its even possible to kill everything down there as its extremely deadly (by design). I wanted the game to end with an exciting finish rather than just the same careful, plodding, clearing of every floor. I've won many a games with my hands on the goblet, surrounded by enemies with fireballs zooming in.
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As a fan of rogue like games, especially short ones I can throw myself at in a fit of boredom, I rather like this one. It's not perfect and the merchant will sometimes break the game (as in, it stops working entirely), the only major issue I have with it is that there's no ice mage. Keep up the good work.
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fourbits: since the basic acid attack only does 2 damage you only see an increase every 50% starting at 1% (51% is next upgrade)
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the line of sight calculations are not allways right when there are other units between you and your target. It is odd that if there is a wall at some spot you can shoot past it easier than past and enemy unit. It would also be nice if you could try to shoot at something behind a monster with the risk that the shot gets intercepted, hitting the closer monster instead.
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There is also a bug with electricity bats making certain tiles inaccessible (not sure if it's the bat's attack or where it dies or something like that, but there is a square which shows "electricity" as description when i hover mouse over it but i cannot move there, and there is nothing on that square)
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I'm loving this game so far, spent many hours trying out all characters. Following your version 1.05 which says "- Fixed dropped gold and items landing on stairs, traps, portals etc." , I came across a wealth Altar which had spawned coins on a portal. Thanks for being so active and fixing bugs within days, it makes your game much more enjoyable
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The easiest way to get food is to use a wishing well or a scroll of acquirement. You will get 5 food, which might not be as good as the items you can get, but it can get you trough the game.
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Just did the sewer level, never seen it before, LOVED it! Straight out of Ninja Turtles, yo! Manholes and everything ;) Man, they smashed me.
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well 2 weeks of trying and i finally beat it. it was nice to see the dev communicate with me on my food shortage issue.
one other suggestion: maybe make the shrooms give you 1 or 2 food points? i mean they are food. the round i just beat there was very limited food and limited health fountains/ shroom pickups. so it was an interesting combo of always low on health, running away and not clearing every level- just finding the down stairs. when i hit the bottom floor i had like no health but i had 9 teleport scrolls. it felt cheap as i zipped around the bottom floor until i stumbled on the last item to get and won the game.
+1 for the incredibly epic ending though. lol
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Fast paced, yet tricky at times. Plenty of options to customise builds, and even swerve away from the original class chosen, thrice in skills, stat points and gear. High replayability. Higher addiction factor (must try this now.. or that.. or...). Active dev..... Yup, this is a 5/5. Gratz on a great game.
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Fun game, to be certain. However, I think it'd have more replayability if something, ANYTHING, carried over from one game to the next. I dunno, after my first character died it felt like "Yeah, that was a fun little one-shot".