Bringing over a response from the testers wanted thread:
Panda Tar wrote:Right, I gave my first try just now, in the Novice (HOHO) difficulty. And got killed in a sudden hidden encounter in a black-hole like place. But my hero was already dead from a previous fight. She would die in this one fight probably, though.
Ah yes, I guess I didn't set the loss conditions yet, noted!
Panda Tar wrote:
The first report is like this:
- Story is nice and ok.
- It feels interesting learning spells during exploration.
- There were many places which seemed rocks could be displaced, so I started to wonder if something went amiss.
- Battles are rather easy throghout the map.
- After learning Create Illusion, they get much easier.
- The central part of the map seem to have access from a bridge on the southeast corner. I didn't explore that way, though. So I am not sure if going there and having access to the central plaza would help me defeat those who killed Genevieve.
Glad you're okay with the story. It's a lot of addition on top of what Terry Ray had planned, so some people probably won't like it, but if I'm able to get to it, I'm going to try to add an option to only display texts written by Terry Ray.
Yeah we decided that we would rather have the spell and magic learning happen in a more interesting way than going to the shrines of magic and just learning spells without any explanation of how they apply to the island, so I'm glad that seems interesting!
On novice difficulty, you should be able to just walk all over anything you come across, haha, so the easy battles in this case is how it should be.
I would definitely be interested in how you can get to the central part of the map before making your way around the island. It looks like there isn't any passable way to get there until you have explored the rest of the island.
Panda Tar wrote:
Now, for the queer things:
- I am not sure if Displacement was supposed to be learned when you read a sign saying that you could displace a rock. It was not really clear. But Genevieve did not learn that spell.
- This message triggered here and I got closer to a naga blocking a bridge. It is puzzling. It feels like it's a scripting note, so you can remember something later. For me, it makes not much sense.
- This sign could not be reached. Unless that rock was displaced from there.
Ah yes, the signs are meant for the map creators (just me at the moment) so that anyone can come in, look at the points of interest, and add what needs to be added. So for testing the map, these can be completely ignored. I've removed most of them, but left the ones that still have something I need to address.
As far as the group of rocks in the first area, I do still need to script a placed event near them to give you a hint of some sort (It will be something like, "I need a spell to displace these rocks out of the way"). Then, when you later learn Displacement, you are meant to remember this and go back to grab the reward.
Panda Tar wrote:
- This message would be triggered in almost all battles. If you clicked positive, it would keep prompting the question in an endless loop. Clicking negative would prompt the battle faster (sometimes only choosing once).
That is a script from PatFX to help with balancing. You should just click "no" to adding whatever it's asking you to add. I probably won't be using them for balancing, so I'll try to get rid of them all.
Panda Tar wrote:
- I died once there, then the second time, only my hero got killed. That battle, a Ogre Magi defending that dwelling, we have 10 golems, 6 ogre magi and something like 6 centaurs defending it. These units are too sturdy for dwarves and halflings alone (they also have fair movement reach), and even by using illusions, they got my hero in the end.
Got it! I'll whittle those guys down so they should be easy to defeat. Did you ever pick up your own gold golems from the quest in the second area (southern part of the map)?
Panda Tar wrote:
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If Genevieve dies, the game should be over. That place will make more sense if you have Genevieve with you, lol.
Panda Tar wrote:
- The second hero would land on the northern part of the map. Ok. There is no way out from there. No passage. I don't know if it was meant for Genevieve to displace a rock and free him from that place. If not, then you get stuck.
- There is a scripted battle against a naga. But it triggers again if you walk over the same place. When you go the first place, 10 squires and 10 crossbowmen join your hero. The second time, though, it started to add more over that.
For Pherlon in the ship at the north end of the island, you're meant to read the text for an idea of what he should be doing. The text from Terry Ray mentions a naga that is causing his men issues, so he's supposed to land and go looking for their supplies.
It's odd that after winning the battle you still have control of Pherlon. He should be deactivated as soon as you win that battle, so I'll have to take a look at that.
Panda Tar wrote:
I'll try again another time, probably in the same difficulty and explore that central place, or see if there's access to it. If not, I'll try some manner to spare as many troops as possible and see if it's possible defeating those enemies who killed her.
Hopefully I'll be able to fix the stack sizes for you before you test again, but if not, just use nwcares to auto win the battle. That's what I've been doing to quickly run through the map to test the various scripting!
What in particular would you be interested in helping with?
