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Alpha 8 Comments

shafk 12 years ago

1. Combat was much easier in Alpha 8, The Black Knight only took 5 minutes to kill.
2. The Phoenix is very helpful in Battles giving a Bless/Regen when needed.
3. Like the new opening, especially the inclusion of Mother to the story.
4. It was much easier to find the Diamond to open the glass.
5. I've always told Wombat to Dig down, this time I told him to walk.It appears as If we will meet him again.
6. Deafly Caverns is the only area that doesn't show quests on the minimap.
7. At the start of the game there is a message from Bobby in a bottle about a small island on the southern coastline, it doesn't initiate a quest, is it just for atmosphere? (Or is it just a reference to the main loading screen)
8. In the Monastary area where the big sliding block puzzle is there could be a few torched to better illuminate the area along the east and west walls.

Every build the game gets better.

Edited 12 years ago

ChuckV 12 years ago

"1. Combat was much easier in Alpha 8, The Black Knight only took 5 minutes to kill."

What difficulty were you playing at? I found that on Champion (Normal), combat was indeed not very hard but I didn't think it was too easy either, it is the difficulty level for new players after all.

I haven't played through the entire Alpha on Guardian (Hardest) yet, but it do find it easier than alpha 7 was and it could stand to be harder, especially if the goal is to give a challenge to experimented players.

MageKing17 12 years ago

Is this difficulty comparison taking into account the fact that Alpha 7's difficulty slider was backwards?

ChuckV 12 years ago

Yes, I am comparing the hardest from Alpha 7 (which was actually "Adventurer", due to the backwardness) with the hardest from Alpha 8 (Which is "Guardian" now).

Anne 12 years ago

Good to hear your comments everyone, thanks! You can expect another minor update soon. If you notice any bugs, problems, etc in it, we really appreciate to get feedback on it - as soon as you find the time.

We've actually already got some additional difficulty in the last two difficulty levels, and I suspect, hearing your remarks, Ville might also tune the general difficulty of the hardest level up just a bit.

shafk said:
...4. It was much easier to find the Diamond to open the glass.

4: How was it easier finding the diamond? Do you mean it was easier compared to the 7th build, or easier compared to the previous one (from summer, where the fish was on the island)?

shafk said:
...7. At the start of the game there is a message from Bobby in a bottle about a small island on the southern coastline, it doesn't initiate a quest, is it just for atmosphere? (Or is it just a reference to the main loading screen)

I'm afraid you'll just have to wait and see what we've come up with!

shafk said:
8. In the Monastary area where the big sliding block puzzle is there could be a few torched to better illuminate the area along the east and west walls.
Every build the game gets better.

Noted, thanks. ...And nice to hear we're moving in the right direction.

Edited 12 years ago

shafk 12 years ago

Anne,

The Comment about the Diamond was mainly in reference to Alpha 6, although I think it took me less time to find it than in alpha 7.

My play time doesn't change that much between each alpha because I always try to complete all the side quests.

Also there are enough hints at the end of Alpha 8 to think that the next stage at the docks is going to be fun.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

Aargh, I'm playing at the highest difficulty, haven't found any health potions, and I keep dying to Snap! It's a fun challenge, but I think I'll have to shift down a gear or two for this bit eventually.

Definitely more fun on the hardest difficulty than on my first play-through of the demo, which I did on Adventurer. Even if combat's not really your thing, the game just makes more sense with more of a challenge. Sign of a good "hard" mode, I think - you obviously haven't just thrown more monsters in.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

I feel a bit mean for saying this, but is there any way you could add an ability to mute the game completely, i.e. turn off the sound effects as well as the music? I'm listening to something else on my computer at the moment, and I'd like to be able to play Driftmoon at the same time.

Sorry for not being properly appreciative of your atmospheric bird chirps and so forth. :-/

Anne 12 years ago

Pertusaria said:
...is there any way you could add an ability to mute the game completely, i.e. turn off the sound effects as well as the music?...

What a good question, and at exactly the right time too: Ville just implemented that in the game yesterday, so it'll be available in the next update.

I usually like the "atmospheric bird chirps" (and their equivalents in other areas), but sometimes it's nice to have a change from them.

We're expecting to update again sometime next week, so volume control won't be available today, but quite soon anyway.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

Thanks Anne!

Pertusaria 12 years ago

I got to the end of the playable game so far. My main comment (other than it's fun and clever, and I'm looking forward to more) would be that I think the early game is fairly difficult on the higher settings compared to the later game. Once you get the recipes for health potion and subsequently for antidote, the game up to the current stopping point becomes a lot easier while generally still being a challenge. However, I didn't stay on the same difficulty all the way through, so I don't know how accurate this is. Also, this is my first complete play-through, so it'll be different for experienced players.

Thanks for all the fun so far!

ville 12 years ago

Pertusaria said:
I got to the end of the playable game so far. My main comment (other than it's fun and clever, and I'm looking forward to more) would be that I think the early game is fairly difficult on the higher settings compared to the later game. Once you get the recipes for health potion and subsequently for antidote, the game up to the current stopping point becomes a lot easier while generally still being a challenge. However, I didn't stay on the same difficulty all the way through, so I don't know how accurate this is. Also, this is my first complete play-through, so it'll be different for experienced players.

Thanks for all the fun so far!

It's great to hear that! I do agree that the harder difficulty settings get easier once you get past a certain point, I've been trying to think up extra challenges for the late game - but I constantly keep reminding myself that we need to finish the game first.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

I just beat Snap at Guardian difficulty in version 0.834, and much as I'd like to believe I'm amazingly good at this by now, I have to say that it feels like it's got easier since the last update, as did fighting the skeletons I killed to get to him. Have some of the monsters been tweaked in this update?

ville 12 years ago

As far as I know, nothing's changed in terms of difficulty. I'll check.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

OK, thanks! I trust you to know.

Anonymous1157 12 years ago

I finished the current game yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing, from the Notrium and Monty Python references, to the puzzles and adventure. I have a few complaints, though.

1. I realize that the game is unfinished, but there is absolutely no reason to return to some of the areas unless you want to talk to a merchant. The game is almost a linear series of nonlinear micro-games. There's nothing really WRONG with it, 'cause the game is certainly fun as it is, but it's not what I would have wanted if I were the level designer.
2. I thought the reason you could tell Arabella that (s?)he probably doesn't want the salesman after all was because you could find someone else, but because of #1, I was wrong.
3. I never physically found the mage's staff that would let you capture those fire elements in the crypt, or the deaf piper's hearing aid. The former quest checked itself off when he died, and the latter quest was left open.
4. When I was talking to that professor guy at the beginning of one of the areas, I never properly went through the conversation but it still put the quests for the four figurines in my log.

(Yes, I know I screwed up the names.)
Edited 12 years ago

shafk 12 years ago

To find the mage's staff in the Crypt you need to explore around the room with the gravestones and move something around.
The Professor is part of the main quest so will always appear in the Log.

Anonymous1157 12 years ago

shafk said:
To find the mage's staff in the Crypt you need to explore around the room with the gravestones and move something around.
The Professor is part of the main quest so will always appear in the Log.

I put the gravestone over the missing spot and fought the mage already, and still have no staff. No item dropped, or at least I can't find it anywhere. I just started the game and checked again, and the staff is most definitely not here.

shafk 12 years ago

I'm currently playing Alpha 0.836 and haven't reached that point yet but will test it when I get there.

Ville - there are no notes about 0.836 so I assume it's qust a quick bug fix for 0.835.

Edited 12 years ago

ville 12 years ago

Glad to hear you liked it, and thanks for the feedback!

The bugs sound exactly like the one we had with version 0.835. It resulted in most of the dropped items vanishing and the containers being empty. I quickly repaired it for 0.836, but I'm afraid that if your saved game was affected by it, it will require a full restart.

I do agree that usually there is no reason to go back to previous levels, unless you want to go after the ingredients or the merchants. It's a conscious decision from me, since I much prefer completing an area before going on to the next one. As a game player I never like quests that force you to travel all around the world and to previous, empty areas, and that's why Driftmoon doesn't feature them either. But I'm of course open to suggestions.

The four figurines quests actually come from the book on the table.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Update] And if somebody wants to make a mod with quests that need a bit of backtracking, feel free to. Just remember that modding the main game's map files is not advisable until a bit after the initial release, as they will likely change a bit.
Edited 12 years ago

jgprof 12 years ago

ville said:
...if somebody wants to make a mod with quests that need a bit of backtracking, feel free to. Just remember that modding the main game's map files is not advisable until a bit after the initial release, as they will likely change a bit.

This raises (and kind of answers) a question that I've been meaning to ask for a while. You've stated before that you allow -- and indeed expect -- modders to use the objects from the game in their own mods, but where do you stand on the re-use of maps? You've created the world of Driftmoon and I can understand that you might want to reserve the maps, characters and backstories for your own mods in the future, but do you mind if others tweak them and set their own adventures there too?

Anne 12 years ago

jgprof said:
This raises (and kind of answers) a question that I've been meaning to ask for a while. You've stated before that you allow -- and indeed expect -- modders to use the objects from the game in their own mods, but where do you stand on the re-use of maps? You've created the world of Driftmoon and I can understand that you might want to reserve the maps, characters and backstories for your own mods in the future, but do you mind if others tweak them and set their own adventures there too?

That would be fine (and I checked this from Ville as well, it's not just me saying it)! You're definitely allowed to use the maps, characters, etc, and add in your own adventures or enhancements.

If you plan on modding the main game, you just have to keep in mind that all the files will undergo at least small changes right up until the whole adventure is finished. This can be troublesome especially if you edit any of the maps from the main game to your mod.

But not to worry: If your head is swirming with really cool ideas for side-quests that you want to add to the finished adventure (the finished maps of Driftmoon once they're completely done), you can start working on them now in a separate map, and then copy-paste them in the final version of Driftmoon later.

Another option is to add new maps to the main game, and just link them into the main game by adding a quest giver, which can be easily moved to any newer versions of the default game.

Reusing the main Driftmoon is definitely something we want to encourage. If you have any questions, we're here to help you.
Edited 12 years ago

Pete 12 years ago

That reminds me, Ill have to go and add a tail to every single petrified person in the village again now that its been modified... eventually.

Pertusaria 12 years ago

I meant to say after the last update - I like the fact that the Bottomless Quiver uses mana now. It seams like a better balance between convenience and cost.

There's a bit of Belinda's dialogue where her name is given even though she hasn't been identified and your character is calling her "wolfie", but I'll try and go back and pinpoint it. She's a nice addition - she brings the night wolves firmly into the category of "can be negotiated with" rather than "not sure if this is a full NPC or a threat/XP opportunity".

I found the message in the bottle for the first time this evening - has it been there all along? Also, the fisherman's hat seems to be missing from Rince's house, but maybe there's a bit of randomness in what you get there.

Anne 12 years ago

Thanks for the feedback, Pertusaria!

Pertusaria said:

I found the message in the bottle for the first time this evening - has it been there all along? Also, the fisherman's hat seems to be missing from Rince's house, but maybe there's a bit of randomness in what you get there.

The message in the bottle has been there since the 7th Alpha, so you must have just walked right past it before.

I am a bit curious about the fisherman's hat though, because it should still be right where it was. I just checked it too! Is there any chance that you were so fast in picking it up, that you didn't even have time to notice what you did? Fortunately, this exact problem couldn't have been connected to the bug in version 0.835 (see above). So is there any chance the hat is hiding in your inventory? Or do we have to start looking for an invisible hat-eating Driftmoonian monster that us developers had no idea even existed?

ville 12 years ago

As most of you will have seen from the front page, we might be getting portraits for some of the more important non-player characters! I've already made the code support them, so if you've got artistic talent, your mods can soon show portraits in the conversation screen.

Death Knight 12 years ago

When this game's been finalized i will make my char and play through the whole thing. Id like to play through now but wanna wait so i can appreciate the whole story. Id also like to play through scavenge too and hopefully some other people will release mods for this great game.

Thanks anne and ville for taking your time and making a great game

Edited 12 years ago

Pete 12 years ago

And just like that a mod appears. Plugging it in the forums since I imagine some people might go directly here instead of the front page>
Return to Valmor by ChuckV
and could you perhaps use your god-like mod summoning ability more often? I have a WIP mod here that is stuck in pernament stasis at the moment thanks to ALL OF THE UNIVERSITY WORK happening that could use the boost...

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