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[Eldiran]

Yep, there are random, infinitely respawning battles in certain locations.

Also, your XP gains don't diminish based on your strength relative to the enemy, so even if you 'waste' your XP on something you no longer want, it's not a big deal.

[TheLinguist]

Oooh, this looks neat. Free character customization, various skills that can be given separately to a character, characters going in individual turn order, and so on. Hopefully there's some manner of difficulty setting as well, to avoid the issue FFT had where newbies got owned and vets had to artificially handicap themselves.

It's just a shame that it's not available for Linux . I'll give it a follow on Steam, in hopes that it does get a Linux release at some point.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Can you continue playing after the ending?

The game's looking great btw!

[Dostoevsky]

Yep, there are random, infinitely respawning battles in certain locations.

Also, your XP gains don't diminish based on your strength relative to the enemy, so even if you 'waste' your XP on something you no longer want, it's not a big deal.

Thanks for the quick response. Having experienced them now, the limited number of respawning battles seems like a good middle ground between frequently getting accosted in old areas and having to carefully plan out builds in advance so you don't 'waste' XP.

Hopefully there's some manner of difficulty setting as well, to avoid the issue FFT had where newbies got owned and vets had to artificially handicap themselves.

There's two separate ways to modify difficulty: raw stat modifiers (from -60% to +60%) and letting the AI get more/less time to take its turn (longer time meaning more likely to make a smart move). Raw stat buffs to enemies personally isn't my cup of tea, so it's nice to be able to pick the two independently.

That said, the default difficulty has seemed somewhat challenging without being too rough. My only qualm thus far is that it can be pretty tough to protect squishy members of your team, to the point that I've just begun giving everybody shields and sticking with tortoise formations until a battle reaches mop-up phase.

[Eldiran]

Oooh, this looks neat. Free character customization, various skills that can be given separately to a character, characters going in individual turn order, and so on. Hopefully there's some manner of difficulty setting as well, to avoid the issue FFT had where newbies got owned and vets had to artificially handicap themselves.

It's just a shame that it's not available for Linux . I'll give it a follow on Steam, in hopes that it does get a Linux release at some point.

Thanks!

Here's hoping the game is easy to port to Monogame. I have no experience with Linux, but Monogame can supposedly export to Linux, so I will definitely give it a try.

Can you continue playing after the ending?

The game's looking great btw!

Thank you!

Unfortunately not. But when you beat it, you do unlock some interesting stuff for future playthroughs ; )

Thanks for the quick response. Having experienced them now, the limited number of respawning battles seems like a good middle ground between frequently getting accosted in old areas and having to carefully plan out builds in advance so you don't 'waste' XP.

There's two separate ways to modify difficulty: raw stat modifiers (from -60% to +60%) and letting the AI get more/less time to take its turn (longer time meaning more likely to make a smart move). Raw stat buffs to enemies personally isn't my cup of tea, so it's nice to be able to pick the two independently.

That said, the default difficulty has seemed somewhat challenging without being too rough. My only qualm thus far is that it can be pretty tough to protect squishy members of your team, to the point that I've just begun giving everybody shields and sticking with tortoise formations until a battle reaches mop-up phase.

Yeah, I usually find stat boosts as difficulty boring and annoying. I think it works decently well in Voidspire Tactics, because the numbers are small to start with. "Expert" (+20% stats) mode makes enemies a lot more threatening without turning them into damage sponges.

I like how the default difficulty turned out though. Even though it can be hard to keep the squishies safe. (I definitely want to add more protective/control abilities in my next game.)

[Frumple]

Could always add more ways to shift difficulty, though Or consider it for the next game, I guess.

Games like this, one of the fun (/brutal) ways is to give enemies access to more abilities and whatnot. That's one of the primary ways ToME 4, as an example, increases difficulty -- giving certain enemies player class talents, increasing strength and breadth of talents available, etc. Prefix/suffix stuff ala the diablo diable (or similar means, ala Portralis and its elite/boss monsters that get certain effects from a particular list) are a similar sort of direction to go.

Randomized/increased amount of environmental challenges is another method that doesn't involve straight number boosts. Increased numbers of enemies is a standard go-to. Reduced amount of player units is another one (extra bonus points -- you can make the one(s) removed from play randomized each fight, so you can't rely on any particular member of your party). Force-randomized class/race/ability choices is another one that can be fun.

I've been long appreciative of weird gameplay changes as a means of adjusting difficulty, too. Stuff like a pinball mode where everything inflicts knockback and your primary means of damage is ricocheting enemies off walls/environmental obstacles/each other. There's a lot you can do to shift things up that doesn't involve just stat mods or smarter enemies, heh (though the latter in particular helps a lot).

[Eldiran]

Well, there is one thing you unlock when you beat the game... ; )

Nothing too crazy like pinball mode though : P

You can also do some self-imposed stuff. Earlier I did a solo run (if you let your companions die and then leave the area, they can get lost and have to be recovered by a certain NPC) and it was pretty entertaining and challenging.

[Ruludos]

Hah! Went back to the Tangle with a much stronger party. I was having trouble landing Blizzards on normal targets, but it absolutely shredded the enemies there. The reward was well worth it, although I don't recall Kamina ever using a spear...

I think the most difficult fight I've had so far was the second battle with Celia. She brought three buddies with flails who kept on using Break Arms/Legs on my guys, which made it a real pain to do anything. Luckily the northeastern corner of the arena had a little corridor filled with rubble; I had my Sage and my Guardian sit at the end and pick away at the flail-users with guns while they struggled to path through the difficult terrain. I need to get a Scholar back into rotation; the lack of Prayer makes it very hard to do the consistent spellcasting I needed to remove all those debuffs.

Spoiler: Edit for Story Spoilers (click to show/hide)

I just ran into Ekrast and decided to fight him. I started laughing once his stats came up; the incredible battle music that came up was just the icing on the 'you're fucked' cake.

EDIT:
Just met Aeshra and killed her in a single combat round. Feels good.

[Eldiran]

Hah! Went back to the Tangle with a much stronger party. I was having trouble landing Blizzards on normal targets, but it absolutely shredded the enemies there. The reward was well worth it, although I don't recall Kamina ever using a spear...

I think the most difficult fight I've had so far was the second battle with Celia. She brought three buddies with flails who kept on using Break Arms/Legs on my guys, which made it a real pain to do anything. Luckily the northeastern corner of the arena had a little corridor filled with rubble; I had my Sage and my Guardian sit at the end and pick away at the flail-users with guns while they struggled to path through the difficult terrain. I need to get a Scholar back into rotation; the lack of Prayer makes it very hard to do the consistent spellcasting I needed to remove all those debuffs.

That encounter is actually partially randomly generated - you must have gotten unlucky to get so many enemy Breakers. Good strategy though. And yeah, Prayer is super useful at all parts of the game. There are only a few other methods in the game to restore MP.

Spoiler: Edit for Story Spoilers (click to show/hide)

I just ran into Ekrast and decided to fight him. I started laughing once his stats came up; the incredible battle music that came up was just the icing on the 'you're fucked' cake.

EDIT:
Just met Aeshra and killed her in a single combat round. Feels good.

That was a fun fight to design >D

Also nice work clearing that encounter so quickly. That one can go bad easily.

EDIT:
It's up on Steam!! : D

http://store.steampowered.com/app/415920

[darkflagrance]

Difficulty levels might be better handled as more tricky enemy parties (lots of cripplers like the above party) as well as or in addition to raw stat buffs. That might force more strategy/min-maxing out of veterans and make degenerate strategies less attractive.

[Dostoevsky]

Finished this last night; totaled a little over 16 hours, if folks are curious about that sort of thing. Found most of (probably not all of) the secret areas, too. While in early- to mid- game I felt I had to stick to shields and turtle formations, by mid- to late- more options opened up. By the end most mooks went down with little difficulty, while the bosses were still a good challenge.

Edit: by 'little difficulty' I don't mean I could go braindead, just that it wasn't too tough to stay on top of things and I was never scrambling to regain the upper hand (which definitely still happened sometimes with bosses... and certain other battles).

Lots to like about the combat and skill/class system. Like in FFT, the main/subclass/passive options allowed some fun tinkering with customization. In terms of active abilities some classes felt less useful than others, but almost every class had utility skills worth considering.

Crafting was great in its simplicity. Blueprint+Material works well, especially with being able to breakdown the item to return materials as much as you want. This meant that I generally didn't have to worry about being constrained by the loot I found.

The exploration skill stuff (vines, climbing ropes, etc.) were a nice touch and were useful/neat without being overused.

Similarly, the use of lighting I found to be excellent. Most of the time you didn't have to worry about a light source, but when you did you really did.

And finally, the fact that all battles occur directly on the map was good fun and allowed additional tactics. Had one running battle in a dark place that was notably different, fleeing toward a chokepoint while taking potshots and keeping my team within the light.

Party composition, questions, etc. in spoilers due to spoilers and just being large space.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My team's classes only really solidified after collecting the four aerstones. Before then, shields all around and unlocked all the classes to see the options available.

First, the Rasmen Blade/Scholar (sometimes Blade/Guardian). Aimed for a duelist high-evasion build with a sword and parrying dagger. This fellow was the most reliable steady damage output of the team. I only really used a few of the Blade skills with regularity, but Rend made the class worth using. On the whole, though, I wonder if using a Guardian with shield bash + electric shield wouldn't be a better dual wield option. Scholar mainly for a backup prayer user, but I also pumped the fire skill a bit for pinch-hitter fireballs.

Second, the Fareem Guardian/Scout. The only fellow to not get KO'd once in the entire game. I found both classes vital over the course of the playthrough. Nearly all of the Guardian skills are worth taking and using often (Rally being much better than I thought it'd be). Scout only has a few crucial skills (First Aid, Firestarter, and Trip Up) but those skills are all really useful. Maxed First Aid ASAP on starting the game and didn't regret it. Firestarter, especially when maxed out, is a great & reliable DOT on enemies - and a great emergency light source in those fights in the dark. Trip Up's use is pretty self-explanatory, and since this one wasn't the DPS anyways the reduced damage wasn't a big deal. Trained in several different weapons, but generally ended up using a spear or whip + shield. Heavenpiercer worked well with this fellow.

Third, the Scurio Sharpshooter/Rogue. Not as reliable as the Blade, but definitely the best damage dealer - near the end most fights started with this fellow headshotting someone for an instant kill. Sharpshooter mainly for the damage increasing skills (never used ACC increasing skills or multi/pierce skills, pretty much) and the bonus to crossbow skill; I pumped this fellow's crossbow skill for 30+ damage standard shots, sometimes 60+ damage headshots. Rogue almost exclusively for the poison/blind attacks - not for the crossbow, but for the shield. The electric shield is such a great weapon I kept counter on this fellow through the end of the game, and being able to poison/blind enemies with it meant it could even be used offensively if you didn't have time to reload. In general, this guy felt like the badass of the team. Nothing like running up to someone to point-blank gutshoot with a crossbow for an instant KO.

Fourth, the Human Scholar/Sage. The healer, basically, although not too shabby with a bow either. Put the 'start first in the first round of battle' skill on him for immediate application of maxed Growth for every battle. Growth Growth Growth - in the latter half of the game possibly the most important skill for my team. With the higher range that comes from better bows (it's the bows and not the skill rating, right?) he could stay fairly reliably out of harm's way while healing/curing/shooting. Also the designated lightbearer via the Gate utility skill. Scholar mainly for the prayer skill, as by the end the bow was usually more useful than any of the scholar's offensive spells and didn't use up needed MP.

Most of the high-end spellcasting classes seemed too MP-hungry to be useful for most fights, especially the longer boss battles, but I'll admit I didn't give them too much testing. Evasion builds also seemed inferior to armor builds in most circumstances, as even a Rasmen loses so much evasion when being flanked, while armor is reliable from all sides.

I like that RUIN mode gives extra skills to opponents, but I don't think I'd ever pick it due to the +80% stats. Delinking them would be nice, but not a big deal - normal difficulty felt fine and if/when I do another playthrough I'll probably keep it at normal and just use a more challenging class composition.

Are the extra races unlocked at the end affected by what races you inspected? I unlocked the bug folks and diecasts, but forgot to Look at Jin until after I beat the game... if I re-beat it with that lore entry will I unlock those folks as well? Are there other races that can be unlocked?

[Eldiran]

@Dostoevsky: Awesome : ) Glad you enjoyed the game. It's super interesting to read the builds people go with; sounds like you found some neat combinations.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shield Bash only pushes instead of damaging, so your duelist setup was the way to go for damage output.

Also glad to see you found Scout useful- most people dismiss it as a starter class, but it's actually quite potent.

Bow range is based on the weapon itself, yep.

Scholar is super good just for Prayer. The other alternatives are the Balancer's Warmth spell and the Enchanter's Essence Flow passive - with those you could probably justify some higher MP costing spells.

Whether to go for armor or evasion usually relies on which you can stack better. So, basically depends on your class / equipment setup - evasion would likely be the better route for a Shiftcloak or Rogue, whereas a Warrior or Breaker probably would have a better time favoring armor.

And yeah, those are the only two extra races - it isn't connected to what you inspect.

[Frumple]

Guess I should mention this here. Will transcribe the post below, in spoilers, too, though the formatting will change a lil' cause of that.

Been playing a bit. Definitely enjoying, though there are some performance issues (mostly while moving around outside of combat -- it gets a little stuttery) and I got stuck in a tree, once (took a sapling and grew it where a drop-down landed at*, thankfully I saved beforehand 'cause I had a suspicion that was going to happen ).

Normal difficulty is definitely pretty easy, so far. I fairly regularly have one or two of my guys drop, but most of the time it's 'cause I'm too lazy to stop it, and I don't actually need everyone alive to get the job done (the worm-thing boss in the drunkbog lost ~100 HP before it took its second action XD). Crafting system is triggering all sorts of hoarding instincts, ha. Can't wait to finish getting swift hands so I can really set my crossbowsnake to work.

I think if I had to mention a disappointment, it's that I keep expecting the game to be more clever than it is. I'll dig walls, plant trees and grow grass, cast spells on surrounding terrain, stuff things in likely places (drunkbog looked like it had pedestals rising out of the water, ferex -- I figured putting some of that fruit on them would do something, but alas no. Tree thing* below would be another example) and so on and so forth, and it mostly doesn't give me any return for it. Some degree of neat interactions, it just pretty regularly feels like there should be more, like I'm missing something where there's (near as I can tell) nothing to miss. Electrocuting the the broken robot arms should make hostile robo-Things attack me or somethin', y'know? Then I'd be able to break down the remains into more iron or steel or whatev'. Stuff like that.

Anyway, definitely pretty good work. Will be keeping an eye out for future endeavors!

*In that foresty area south of the castle-thingy with the archers, iirc. Spot where it looks sorta' like a knothole or root tangle with a ray of light in the center, in the underground. It looked like somewhere you'd grow a tree and get something interesting to happen, heh.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just had the most unexpectedly poignant moment I've experienced in a video game in... years, probably. Completely unintentional on the part of the game's designers, but... still. Story is I accidentally picked up a tiny toy boat right at the start of the game -- it's worth nothing, can't be sold, can't be broke down, etc., etc., it's just useless prop-junk, so far as I've been able to tell (in fact, the moment in question is what pretty much verified that) -- that I had been carrying around mostly just 'cause, but partially thinking it was a unique item that held some kind of later import.

Anyway, hours, a few bosses, several dozen things murdered, towns looted, etc., etc., later I'm ransacking a temple full of miscellaneous junk, that probably had everyone in it murdered at some point but is currently empty, and I come across a room. In the room is nothing particularly valuable -- light source I'm not bothering to steal, some beer that's not worth carrying, a mug -- but in the corner... is another tiny toy boat. I look at it, think for a moment, and then set the other toy boat I've been carrying down on the table in the room and then... just kinda' stop for a minute. Looking at it.

Here's this group of inadvertent adventurers, ripped along with the land around them out of their homeland into a floating conglomerate of death, filled with things that want to kill them and a rare few non-hostile people, most of them not even able to speak the same language. The nominal leader, a literally faceless warrior that's been wading through blood and devastation for the last (by their perspective) few weeks, has been carrying this tiny toy boat, trinket, comfort, memory of what was lost... who really knows. But he's been carrying it for weeks, through what's probably the most trying time of his life.

And he sees another, leftover affection in some dead person's office, probably the first sign of actual happiness he's seen since his and his friends lives were thrust into hell. And just, I'unno, stops. Hurting? Whatever counts for crying for his species? Is he happy? Laughing? A small bit of lifted spirit at another -- the only other one he's yet seen -- memory of better times? Who knows.

But he stops, his teammates silent, watching. Reaches into his pack. Takes out the toy boat -- you can see it. Whatever's happening to him, his hands are shaking, posture somewhere between reverent and broken. He sets the boat down. Stares. Looks from boat to boat. This is the closest he's came to just stopping this entire damned struggle, almost finally brought down by a simple toy boat in the corner of some room in an empty, massacred temple.**

And then he reaches back down, hands firm once more. Picks up the little toy, sets it back in his pack, readies his axe, and walks out the room, friends trailing behind.

**It looked like this: Incidentally, no, none of the above was supported by the game itself's story, which is quite sparse. It's just what the actions themselves intimated, reading into a situation that's largely invented and a character reaction that's literally nonexistent in game. Still hit me harder than just about any bit of media has in a long time. The boat's coming with.

[Eldiran]

Guess I should mention this here.

◕▽◕

That's awesome to read. This is why I prefer making games where PCs have nondescript backstories - the player can project more meaning onto their characters than I can write.

Bummer to hear about the performance issues. If it ever becomes a serious issue, the game will lag less when the window size is smaller (the main source of lag is just from drawing all the tiles) - could be a stopgap measure to get you through a problem area.

I think if I had to mention a disappointment, it's that I keep expecting the game to be more clever than it is.

That's disappointing to me too. I wanted to add as many secrets as I could, but only a few esoteric ones - with complicated methods in the sense that you're thinking - made it into the game. I'll probably be adding a few more such things via patches when I have time.

Really glad you're enjoying it though!

[Frumple]

Nearing the end game, now, I think. And... can I just say that crossbows get... kinda' silly? Good silly, but still.  My crossbowsnake is now toting three scout rifles, a blunderbuss, two dragon pistols, and a gale crossbow (also a couple of force and ancient pistols sitting in a bag, if for some reason everything's not dead after seven rounds of >=10 power crossbow shots). It's like I take one passive (quick hands ) and completely negate bows' one competitive advantage (not needing to reload in-combat; neither do crossbows :V). It's faintly ridiculous. Delightfully ridiculous.

... though to be fair, either of my casters pretty regularly out damages the poor guy (we'll not talk about the blade/warrior axedude, who's sadly overwhelmed for all he has a 10 strength axe), though the sage/scholar only against undead (41+ damage per heal cast, yikes). Still. Definitely going to have to try bows next round, just to see how they hold up against this silliness. Maybe just go entirely ranged... especially once the respawning stuff starts dropping pistols, it'll be pretty easy to outfit whoever you want with however many of the things y'please...

Spoiler: re: a late game fight (click to show/hide)

Also, anyone have any tips for that horrific fight against the necromancer critter? Those 120 Hp undead things that at-most 2-shot everyone in my party wreck the everloving blazes out of my everything -- I actually had to blink over the wall the first batch was guarding (which eventually led to a reload before entering the area, since I couldn't kill them one the way back up and I couldn't kill the necromancer + entourage, either), and the archon/unmaker on the high-ground is just icing on the deathcake. My best thought at the moment is come back through in the next runthrough and just have everyone be something like guardian/sage for that fight, for tanking and heal-blasting the undead, but still. Fight's terrifying.

Area before the necromancer was hilarious, though, albeit lengthy. I managed to kill one of the eyelight guys with max-range heal (note: Most of their other appearances are entirely trivialized by that), then aggro all the rest. Ended up with only one of my guys taking any damage worth note, and that was only because I let them to speed things up. I'd... probably recommend you give those guys laser eyes or summat, heh. See next spoiler to see how it happened

Spoiler: Pictured: Why you don't give patient players a chokepoint (click to show/hide)

You can see what happened, methinks. The fight was spent almost entirely behind the obvious chokepoint -- heal-nuker below the corpse on the right, axebro below the corpse on the left, crossbowsnake below the bone wall, and the other caster spent most of the fight plinking with lightning when able, but mostly standing beside the healer to let teacher kick in and moving corpses axebro put behind him to trick more eyeghouls into getting stuck in (for one turn, after which counter+heal one-rounded the eyeghoul :V).