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[nenjin]

Combat and handling in general in this game is pretty atrocious. It's like things are deliberately slow and janky to make combat harder.

Is the dev doing active development? The steam forum is full of russian by and large and there's only about 4 pages there.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I killed the magic fox by accident--stabbing it with my enchanted dagger to get some meat. Then it played the same melt-into-gold animation that it normally plays after a potion, but no XP point appeared.  I thought it was weird, but didn't realize I missed something until reading about it here.

[Kagus]

Is the dev doing active development?

Yep! As mentioned in the OP, he did just release a fairly significant patch on Friday. Here's the full text of the update:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Update 1.15

- Fixed a bug leading to the breakage of the saved game if the recording was made at the time of decapitation of the NPC.
- Fixed a bug that allowed to take items from the inventory while the rune wheel is active, which could lead to inaccuracies in casting spells.
- The decay time of corpses has been increased by one and a half minutes. Bodies now lie on the ground longer.
- Fixed a save / load bug where villagers could re-participate in a raid event.
- Pillagers now break furniture with great zeal, shouting threats and using special animations. The time required for complete destruction of interior items during a raid has also been increased.
- Optimized the code for summoning some minions.
- Added descriptions for most Steam Achievements.
- Tricea can no longer be put into the alchemy cauldron.
- Added the ability to select the difficulty of the game.
Difficulty changes affect the following aspects:
* maximum number of lives of the necromancer.
* number of enemies triggered by kill counter events.
* the amount of health that opponents restore through healing potions.
* the number of night watchmen patrolling the area if the settlement has enough resources.
* behavior of the rune wheel. On low difficulty, the starting angle of rotation is always the same.
The difficulty of the game does not affect the attributes of hostile, neutral or friendly units.
Medium difficulty is identical to the settings of previous versions of the game, so old saves will automatically work on medium difficulty.
The choice of difficulty is set once at the start of a new game and cannot be changed.
You can find out the current difficulty level in the statistics window in the map mode.

Thanks to the community for contributing to the development of the game!

And yeah, the game isn't particularly well-known as such, so the English-speaking playerbase isn't exactly huge at the moment.

I killed the magic fox by accident--stabbing it with my enchanted dagger to get some meat. Then it played the same melt-into-gold animation that it normally plays after a potion, but no XP point appeared.  I thought it was weird, but didn't realize I missed something until reading about it here.

Oh yeah, it's not dead. Whenever you hit it, it teleports away to a different map location (there are some 2-3 spots it'll hop between) and heals back to whatever health it had before. Poison doesn't work either, it just heals it right back immediately. If it even is possible to kill it, I think you'd need to either somehow deal enough damage in one hit to kill it outright, or there's some other mysterious strangeness you'd need to finagle.

[nenjin]

Is there any use to 90% of the materials other than as reagents, once you've repaired the lighthouse objects?

At first I was a little annoyed that there are like swords and axes and picks laying around that you can neither wield nor use to harvest stuff. But after just a bit of scrounging I was like.....do I even really need more Timber at this point, other than for Ghost Weapons and whatever else?

[nenjin]

I think I've got my bearings now.

Going Witchcraft because it seems like the most straightforward and least material intensive route. I think I'll max out Birb Form just because it's the safest and fastest way to travel and picking up feathers is annoying. Way easier to just constantly change shape, get what you need and get out of there rather than having to have an inventory full of feathers and constantly be picking them up. Although I'm starting to feel the lack of minions. Lots of the named villagers have plenty of backup. With only rats and trees to up your numbers, the majority of the fighting will have to be done by me.

In the mean time I'm sort of liking the whole skulking around the woods looking for isolated targets to attack. It's very witchy, hunting down a bunch of hapless villagers for the sake of revenge. And occasionally aggroing too many people until you have a mob chasing you through the woods.

The overall gameplay loop is a little bland but I chalk that up to mostly movement not being enjoyable and rather sluggish. There's times it seems like the pathfinding becomes unresponsive for a moment until you click around somewhere close by. Responsiveness to actions on objects is also kinda shit. You can click directly on something and you'll move to it, but then your guy will start walking around it a bit and you have to click a second time right on it to actually interact. As I said before there's some deliberate delays in the animations to slow things down and I'm not a big fan of that. It could just be more user friendly and tighter in handling across the board.

I like the sorta low key atmosphere of the game. To a point anyways. Some of the stuff that holds things together feels a little thin. (NPCs) I haven't done hardly any of the story, but for the primary way it tells you things (text), it feels a little lazy. I get English isn't the primary language here, but I don't get the sense it's any better written in its own language. There's something very casual feeling about the writer's "voice" outside of skills and spells. Like someone isn't feeling super creative so you end up with stuff like Dave the Gravedigger. I find myself wanting it to lean harder into some things. Like everything you interact with uses tutorial voice, and it sorta deserves more than that.

It's a bit odd too that only killing named villagers grants experience points, and killing unnamed villagers furthers the plot. I mean, I get it I think. Slaughtering a whole bunch of rando villagers alerts the Order to there being a problem. But from a gameplay perspective, you kinda need a lot of skill points to take out most of the named villagers. So it's a trap killing unnamed villagers for flesh or w/e. You really should be focusing your efforts on all the named villagers instead, but they take way more work to get to and deal with. It's interesting but kind of odd at the same time.

All in all I like it and I wanna see it develop further. I wish it felt a little less tedious and grindy to get stuff done though. There's not a ton of immersive elements or hooks to counterbalance the busy work.

[( Tchey )]

I went with the crow form, rats, plant, and enchanted dagger to get a ranged attacked, and the succubus from demonic branch.

It’s a powerfull minion, could take out the wolf named and its three wolves friends, alone while i was just keeping my distance and watching the fight.

I feel the game is more of a prototype, and with time and money (as always) i would love an indepth sequel.

Ruinarch is another game where you have to kill villagers, but the premices are different, it’s more like an inverted Rimworld and you are Randy Evil...

[EuchreJack]

It's a bit odd too that only killing named villagers grants experience points, and killing unnamed villagers furthers the plot. I mean, I get it I think. Slaughtering a whole bunch of rando villagers alerts the Order to there being a problem. But from a gameplay perspective, you kinda need a lot of skill points to take out most of the named villagers. So it's a trap killing unnamed villagers for flesh or w/e. You really should be focusing your efforts on all the named villagers instead, but they take way more work to get to and deal with. It's interesting but kind of odd at the same time.

If you think of this like Grand Theft Auto, where killing lots of people brings in the cops whereas killing specific people makes you stronger, then it makes perfect sense.  They should rename Plot to Heat or something.  It's a Russian game, just chalk it up to bad translation. 

Also, from what I can tell, if you're intent to max out one skill category, I think you can pick one or two in another skill category.

My strategy as a necromancer is Paratrooper Skeletons: I use the alchemy pot to prepare the bones, fly over to the target in Raven form, find a secluded spot, then cast my Necromancy spells to turn the bones into skeletons, then we rock.  Bone golem doesn't even need reagents, it just gets stronger if you use them.
The only real problem with Necromancy is that you can't cast the summons during the day (I think).  So you need Bone Chalk and have to summon the minions at night, chalk them, then hide till your target reaches their day spot, if they're more vulnerable during the day (like blacksmith and healer).

Demonology might be better for day actions?  I know Kagus insists on 3 skill points, but 2 will still get you a few imps and the demon at low power.

[Kagus]

Three skill points in order to have portal level 2 + imps level 1. While you can use imps without portal level 2, you're then stuck babysitting the portal and have to make sure that your desired action for the imps is absolutely going to happen at that point within a reasonable time frame. Which, in the case of late-game roaming parties that get stuck on themselves occasionally, isn't always the case.

If you're not using imps then you basically never need to stick a point into portal tech.

Having level 2 lets you plop down a portal, roll out the imps, and then go do useful things like collect potion materials or prep infected meats to load up the imps with parasites (parasites are wild and work wonderfully with the sulphurata, and putting them on imps makes a ludicrously powerful cuisinart of flesh). Once you get portal independence you can actually set up roadblocks in order to disrupt village supplies (and earn you a ridiculous amount of human).


On the topic of goliaths: Is there a limit to how many you can have at once? You obviously can't summon that many at once due to the health cost, but if you just summon and then smear them in sunblock, can you accumulate several of them before launching an attack?


And yeah, there are some definite rough spots in regards to storytelling and skill gain. The current skill system based around named characters is actually a fairly new experiment apparently, so everything's still very much in the growing phase. The dev has stated on a few occasions that there are a lot of ideas he'd like to explore with the game, but due to his inexperience and limitations as a one-man devteam he doesn't want to promise anything huge.

As for you necromancers out there... Is there actually any point to the phylactery? I haven't messed around with it myself, but it seems a bit pointless considering the save system. I feel like it could use some tweaks, as it does seem like a cool concept of using the chest to harvest souls.

Ruinarch is another game where you have to kill villagers, but the premices are different, it’s more like an inverted Rimworld and you are Randy Evil...

I have a great appreciation for Ruinarch as well, I'd love to see a proper thread for it around here sometime.

[nenjin]

It's a bit odd too that only killing named villagers grants experience points, and killing unnamed villagers furthers the plot. I mean, I get it I think. Slaughtering a whole bunch of rando villagers alerts the Order to there being a problem. But from a gameplay perspective, you kinda need a lot of skill points to take out most of the named villagers. So it's a trap killing unnamed villagers for flesh or w/e. You really should be focusing your efforts on all the named villagers instead, but they take way more work to get to and deal with. It's interesting but kind of odd at the same time.

If you think of this like Grand Theft Auto, where killing lots of people brings in the cops whereas killing specific people makes you stronger, then it makes perfect sense.  They should rename Plot to Heat or something.  It's a Russian game, just chalk it up to bad translation. 

Also, from what I can tell, if you're intent to max out one skill category, I think you can pick one or two in another skill category.

My strategy as a necromancer is Paratrooper Skeletons: I use the alchemy pot to prepare the bones, fly over to the target in Raven form, find a secluded spot, then cast my Necromancy spells to turn the bones into skeletons, then we rock.  Bone golem doesn't even need reagents, it just gets stronger if you use them.
The only real problem with Necromancy is that you can't cast the summons during the day (I think).  So you need Bone Chalk and have to summon the minions at night, chalk them, then hide till your target reaches their day spot, if they're more vulnerable during the day (like blacksmith and healer).

Demonology might be better for day actions?  I know Kagus insists on 3 skill points, but 2 will still get you a few imps and the demon at low power.

Level 2 or 3 of one of those skills makes them immune to daylight.

[EuchreJack]

On the topic of goliaths: Is there a limit to how many you can have at once? You obviously can't summon that many at once due to the health cost, but if you just summon and then smear them in sunblock, can you accumulate several of them before launching an attack?

Wait, you can have more than one?  They cost 100 health, so I've never experimented with a second one, since you only have 200 health.  I could totally meal it up, and get a second one!

Phylactery is awesome.  Sure, you could reload if your assassination gets you killed, but often you die 2 seconds after killing the target, before you could Raven and leave.  How many times do you want to try to kill the same named character?  Probably not necessary, but nice.

It's a bit odd too that only killing named villagers grants experience points, and killing unnamed villagers furthers the plot. I mean, I get it I think. Slaughtering a whole bunch of rando villagers alerts the Order to there being a problem. But from a gameplay perspective, you kinda need a lot of skill points to take out most of the named villagers. So it's a trap killing unnamed villagers for flesh or w/e. You really should be focusing your efforts on all the named villagers instead, but they take way more work to get to and deal with. It's interesting but kind of odd at the same time.

If you think of this like Grand Theft Auto, where killing lots of people brings in the cops whereas killing specific people makes you stronger, then it makes perfect sense.  They should rename Plot to Heat or something.  It's a Russian game, just chalk it up to bad translation. 

Also, from what I can tell, if you're intent to max out one skill category, I think you can pick one or two in another skill category.

My strategy as a necromancer is Paratrooper Skeletons: I use the alchemy pot to prepare the bones, fly over to the target in Raven form, find a secluded spot, then cast my Necromancy spells to turn the bones into skeletons, then we rock.  Bone golem doesn't even need reagents, it just gets stronger if you use them.
The only real problem with Necromancy is that you can't cast the summons during the day (I think).  So you need Bone Chalk and have to summon the minions at night, chalk them, then hide till your target reaches their day spot, if they're more vulnerable during the day (like blacksmith and healer).

Demonology might be better for day actions?  I know Kagus insists on 3 skill points, but 2 will still get you a few imps and the demon at low power.

Level 2 or 3 of one of those skills makes them immune to daylight.

Oops, yeah if you can only put two points into Necromancy, then it won't work.  You'll have to stick to night actions if you're going Necromantic minions.

[nenjin]

Phylactery felt like it was worth sinking at least one point into. I suppose if you leveled it all the way up, you could drop it in the middle of your combat and basically double your damage against a target. If you were just short of killing them, that would do the job.

Couple neat little bits of discovery in the game. Tempted to ask but I think I'll play around more first.

I will say that due to the pace, this is a pretty chill feeling game.

[nenjin]

Spoiler: Liheadra stronk (click to show/hide)

Got the notice of the torch wielding mob approaching the Lighthouse. Summoned 3 Level 2 Liheadra at the front door. Ran off to find some more meat to max out my summons. Come back to 5 dead peasants. Lawl. I guess true power is not even being aware your enemies are dead.

Kinda annoyed that the Miner named villager hangs out by the cook pot perpetually. Seems like a bug.

[Kagus]

Spoiler: Liheadra stronk (click to show/hide)

Got the notice of the torch wielding mob approaching the Lighthouse. Summoned 3 Level 2 Liheadra at the front door. Ran off to find some more meat to max out my summons. Come back to 5 dead peasants. Lawl. I guess true power is not even being aware your enemies are dead.

Kinda annoyed that the Miner named villager hangs out by the cook pot perpetually. Seems like a bug.

[laughs in Brend]

Yeah, a couple of these guys have pretty lackluster "routines" that makes them difficult to exploit. For me it's not even so much about getting that dude, it's about getting access to the pot. Cauldron disease mechanics may be a bit lacking as well, but the debuffs are super helpful, especially later on!


And yeah, planty boys are great... Kinda run into some difficulties later in the game, but I hadn't upgraded to level 3 so maybe the poison is enough to keep them beefy later on.

They're also a fantastic backup to other frontliners in a roadblock, such as imps.

[Kagus]

New update!

- Fixed situations where it was possible to specify allied minions as targets for an attack. The target designation function is also disabled at the stage of the quest prologue.
- Each summoning of a bronze imp now spends 5 health points of the warlock.
- The maximum attack range with an enchanted dagger is now fixed and does not depend on the skill level.
- The final scene of the game is graphically optimized.
- At the request of the players, the "potatoe" mode has been added to the game options. The mode greatly reduces the quality of graphics and drawing range, allowing in some cases to play even on computers below the minimum system requirements. The mode is not saved and requires manual activation every time you start the game.
- Special properties can now be assigned to Lihedera at any time, and not only during creation. To do this, you need to put the missing reagents next to the predatory plant and cast a summoning spell.
- The use of dark magic now leaves its mark on the character. Sleep and food will regenerate less health after a certain kill counter. In this case, the player will receive a corresponding message, and the character's eyes will glow like those of an undead.
- The Phylacteria spell has been reworked and strengthened.
* the amount of health restored is increased.
* upon resurrection, the necromancer gains 25 armor for a few seconds.
* changed animation of absorbed souls.
* at the maximum level of the skill, the necromancer will expel negative energy in case of death, causing damage to everyone around.

Thanks to the community for contributing to the development of the game!

The hitpoint cost of imps is a curious one, but I guess it's to move it even further away from active in-battle usage. And now we've got some added emphasis on healing potions, which... I dunno. Given the already limited number of skill points, I'm not sure how I feel about pushing players to try and invest in that.

I also had no idea until just now that the enchantment attack range was previously dependent on skill level... Hah. My first playthrough I only ever had the one point in it, for hunting purposes