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[IndigoFenix]

I'm not seeing any issues with the swapper.  Unless you fixed it, that would be strange if you're seeing them but I'm not...

One way of handling difficulty is to add occasional healing areas that the player can backtrack to if they need it; experienced players can get through without backtracking.  This works best when the rooms are persistent.

Since the blind effect doesn't transfer properly between rooms (it would be tricky to make that work) the sand coating effect probably shouldn't either.

I'd also suggest making the smaller tile details (like the two small rocks) not solid, since they don't look like they should be.

[Kamani]

Huh. I couldn’t figure out how to fix it, so I left it as was. Did you see the in-testing sandstorm effect? Maybe I forgot to save after adding it or something. I’ll test it tomorrow.
Edit: It works fine. I have no clue why.

I’ll do that. Thank you. Rooms are persistent, but they reset when you die, so that should work fine.

Oh, yeah, right. Forgot to make that change. Thanks.

Yeah, that is a good idea. I’ll do so. Thanks.

Also, the issue with me not being able to get notified about posts here are going to be active for longer than I thought. 5 days, to be precise. Turns out the enter system falls apart if one thing breaks. Apologies about that.

Edit: Ugh, looks like I might end up making another tileset change. The tiles on the mid platform on the left in the boss room don't shade from light to dark because I am using them a bit outside of standard use, and they look awful. Well, that's life. Bright side is that I have the framework for the tileset changes there, and it should look pretty neat.
Also, I really need to start writing down what I was doing when I stopped. I have the nagging feeling that I started something and then left it half done. Well, hopefully, I'll notice sooner or later.

[IndigoFenix]

Eh, I honestly didn't even notice.  It's coming along quite nicely by the way.

I'm wondering if I should implement a built-in party system.  Some of the worlds I'm building involve allies alongside the avatar, which may or may not be playable themselves.  I guess it's a question of whether the player's role is to be a "spectator" for other characters' stories, or if there could be a justification for playing as them directly.  People will probably want to make worlds where you play as a different character, so there should probably be an in-game explanation for how that works...

There also has to be more done on how the inventory will be handled.  Right now, leaving a non-persistent room after switching characters effectively destroys the original avatar and makes them inaccessible until a new world is loaded.  While leaving the world reverts the player back to the original avatar, it is not possible to directly access their inventory otherwise, meaning it is not possible to save any actions that occur after "losing" the avatar using mementos.

I guess the solution would be to store unloaded sprites as a variable in "abstract space" and allow a function to recreate them in a newly loaded room, but that would be fairly advanced stuff that would preclude switching to a new character until the world builder had a solid grasp on how functions worked.

[Kamani]

If you say so. Thanks. Maybe I'm just weirdly sensitive about tiles.

A built-in party system would be neat. Don't really know if there is any decent justification for directly swapping characters in game (although that logical oversight is one that a lot of games do, so I don't know if it is quite as bad. Would still be cool to have lore justification though), but it would be cool.

Yeah, that could be problematic.

That would probably be useful for things outside of character switching too, thinking about it. But yeah, it would also probably be pretty tricky for new world builders (I suppose I have the advantage of hearing about everything as it is added).

I really need to get to work on the town already. I've been putting that off to work on the dungeon for weeks. Thinking about that, I did that for the pre-restart version of Lusuria too. Well, I should probably do the next dungeon the same way I did the second incarnation of Lusuria, since that one was better than the first anyway. Possibly exempting the first dungeon floor, which I seem to recall I felt like Lusuria one did a bit better on.

[IndigoFenix]

Spoiler: Some fun stuff (click to show/hide)

[Kamani]

Neat!

I’ve finally got everything working again, so I will respond at a more normal speed for me from now on.

Edit: Seems like the boss entrance cutscene is good. I think I'll be adding some attacks from Hiekka to the battle (you don't have to attack them, they'll just perform occasional attacks to make life harder. This will probably replace the summoning sand dragons ability).

[IndigoFenix]

Been watching some more videos on dungeon design and game structure.  This has given me an idea that you may or may not want to use or imitate.

Spoiler: Slightly spoilery (click to show/hide)

There will be unreadable inscriptions on dungeon walls written in the language of the Ancients.  Near the end of the game, you will get access to a translation device allowing you to read them (the translation device will be separate from the main data storage memento, allowing you to retain it after resetting your data).  These inscriptions will consist of notes related to the considerations that went into the design of that dungeon, allowing players to imitate the same principles in their own worlds.

I'm also considering the possibility of making objects with -1 gravity "stick" to the floor except when using a programmed jump or dash, and making this the default for objects.  Sometimes enemies with 0 gravity get stuck in the air, generally when targeting the player while they are jumping.  Hmm... or maybe I should just fix up vertical targeting so that objects travel in a straight line by default, then they won't get stuck unless something else moves their vertical position.

EDIT: I fixed up some issues with the "Aim at Target" event.  Using horizontal and vertical spread should work correctly now; setting vertical spread to 0 will force the next dash or projectile to go in a straight line, and default melee attacks now use this to minimize the risk of objects floating in the air.  I also made it possible to save an aimed position as a variable so it may be referenced later.

EDIT: I'm doing some server updates, so BoundWorlds might not run for a few hours.  EDIT2: It's back up.

[Kamani]

Huh. Somehow totally missed that I got the email update for this. Odd. Apologies.

Spoiler: Spoilery Responses (click to show/hide)

Hmm. This might work for me too, although the unreadable inscriptions would be written in code by Hydragyre and Franz, rather than the ancients, or not be inscriptions, but recordings of the past viewable with a magical artifact from one of the later Trials (it'll make a lot more sense when I actually get that far). Not sure that I have too much special stuff that I have to note, but it still might be worth it for me to take a shot at it. In my system, it wouldn't be saved between resets (unless it was a code, because I can make some codes that nobody will break but that, once you know the secret, can be solved pretty easily), but that shouldn't really matter too much.
Code example, in case you are curious:
ervn kohtp h slo dubon wrd te acwr uies.

Seems like that would work well.

Saving an aimed position as a variable should come in handy, and fixes are always great.

Edit: Projectiles seem to be facing in odd directions when fired. I have face enemies set to true on my DragonLanded, but even though the projectiles are moving in the right directions, they are facing arbitrary ones (and I made sure face was working on the projectile too). Any clue what is up? It is likely I just messed something up, but I can't figure out what.

The boss seems to be doing okay. It should be medium easy, which it may or may not be? Hard to tell, since I know all its moves.

Edit: Hmm... Need to find out how long it takes to play through the dungeon. Well, at least I have it set up for that now.

Ugh, I don't feel like this Trial is quite as good as Lusuria. Which stinks, because I actually like the concept of this one quite a bit. I just don't feel like it has turned out as well.
Ah well. Can't really do much about that now.

[IndigoFenix]

I did make a few changes in how projectiles are aimed, so it's probably that.  I'll check it out.

As for the trial's overall quality, Lusuria had a lot more variation between rooms, while this one pretty much uses a single gimmick the whole way through.  While building a dungeon around a single main gimmick is common practice, all the rooms have basically the same structure the whole way through, which feels less interesting.  Maybe instead of just having a grid of identical plateaus, you can join some of them together and put something unique in the larger space?

[Kamani]

Okay. Thanks.

Yeah. Ugh, maybe I'll end up restarting on this. I'd rather not, but I also don't want to create an inferior product. I was originally going to do a cooler, more complicated setup, but I couldn't figure out a good way to keep track of everything, so I didn't end up doing that way. Originally, I was going to have a two-layer system in which activating a path on one later would block it for the other. This would also mean that I wasn't stuck doing this plateau system. In retrospect, I really should have gone with that, despite it being harder to track. Hmm... not sure what to do here.

Edit: Hmm. Looking at it again, changing it so that it isn't just perfectly samey plateau, but more irregular shapes might work just fine.

[IndigoFenix]

Mixing up the shapes should work just fine.  Placing enemies in more interesting patterns might also work well; trace the player's expected path and put more difficult groups in the later areas.  I'd also put a healing point before the Sculptor though.  He's tough to beat even with full HP.

I should also point out that for custom dashes, if you don't restrict vertical spread to 0 during aiming, the user can jump up while using them while the player is jumping.  If they have no gravity set this will cause them to hover in the air.  This happens with the scorpion, and possibly others.  This does not happen with default melee attacks (which automatically constrain vertical spread).  I don't think I'll make -1 gravity the default; at least if there's a zero-gravity problem it's easy to see the error, so this will just be something that people who make custom techs have to learn.

[Kamani]

Oops. I meant for The Sculptor to auto heal you upon entry. Must have forgotten. I am going to do that (and the other changes). Thanks.

Oops again. I better fix that one too. I’ll fix that.

Edit: Both bosses now auto heal, and the shapes in Drooms 1 and 2 are changed (I have to think a bit on how to handle three). Still not really as great as they could be, or as Lusuria, but it is a bit better, at least. Also, 0 vertical spread is now the standard for the Desert enemies. I checked the Lusuria enemies just to be sure, and they're also still good.

Any recommendations on how to handle droom3 (the biggest one)? Because of how packed it is, it's a little harder to just make things irregular, but it is a bit dull as is)

[IndigoFenix]

Spoiler: Suggestions on the desert dungeon (click to show/hide)

I think that the idea of Hiekka being the dungeon (or the whole desert?) itself could be expanded on a little.  Maybe the three statues can be placed across the whole dungeon instead of just in one room - after beating Sculptor and getting the ability to use the hourglasses, you would have to backtrack and open up new paths in order to find them.  This would make the whole dungeon feel more integrated instead of a straightforward gauntlet like Lusuria.
Instead of just dissolving without a word, they could talk to the player before dissolving into sand, using the term "I" to imply that they are all the same entity.  Then in the last room, if you found all the statues, the whole room speaks to you with the same "voice", revealing that it is actually the whole dungeon before opening the path to the boss.

Continuing on the Realm of the Tower (I haven't come up with a good name for it yet) I came up with an idea for designing the world as a whole.  I'm writing up a large number of sidequests that give you a "Soul Shard" as a reward, and then constructing the world around that list - every major structure will be either related to the main plot or have a Shard associated with it.  This will help me fill out the world in between the main quest points and ensure that every area has some reason for players to explore them.  There will be 108 Shards in total, and can also be used to purchase some unique items in a special shop, as well as unlocking a secret area for finding them all.

[Kamani]

Spoiler: Suggestion Responses (click to show/hide)

That's a good idea. Thank you. I'll have to move stuff around a bit to make that work, but it should pay off. Honestly, I should probably redo the rooms from scratch too, seeing as they are getting a bit messy, and when I do that, it should make changing the statues around for a bit.
Yeah, I should definitely do that. That should work WAY better than how I had it set up. Thank you.

That sounds super neat. Looking forward to that.

I think I'll be removing Thaum's quest. It doesn't fit in with what I have going for Lusuria, so it won't work well. Thaum will still show up, although possibly elsewhere, and might even give a different quest, but the current one just isn't what I want to be in Lusuria.

Edit: Finished up the map of the new version of the dungeon. Seeing as I'll be recreating it from scratch (the dungeon portion. The bosses will be staying as is, excepting a single change to the Sculptor Boss Fight room), this might take a while, but I think it should turn out well. There are going to be four Sand Statues, so they'll spread out better.

Edit: More tileset editing! Ugh, I should have thought ahead better...
This would be a lot less annoying if I thought anyone else would really have any use of this or that I would use it in the future.

Edit: Does Droom1's new outline look alright? If it does, I'll be good to finish off the rest of it and get the dungeon all finished.

Also, is there a way to change something's image? I looked at an object's variable menu, and _image just says [object Object], and changing it does nothing. Although I can work around this pretty easily, I realized this would be a good thing to know for both this and for other work.

Oh, but I'll have to make another edited tile, while I'm thinking about it...
Edit: Edited tiles stitched together and used (they turned out pretty well, too. Using this tileset for things that it really wasn't designed for has improved my ability to do stupid stuff like this dramatically. Now things can do normal turns instead of the goofy double turns I was using before. Well, at least I've gained potentially useful skills out of my dubious decision in tilesets).

[IndigoFenix]

There's no real way to change an object's image file, and due to the way file loading is handled probably won't be.

You can use the _frame_offset to pack multiple graphical variations into a single file and switch between them freely, provided the variants are placed one on top of the other. The Last Guardian NPC and spider graphics are set up this way.  The Strange Dragon monsters sort of are but since they are arranged horizontally it can get weird if the frame offset is too high.

I may make an option to copy one objects' entire graphic data, including animations, onto another.  But this is not an option yet.

The new room 1 looks better, more "natural" than before.  Should turn out nicely.