Author Topic: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld  (Read 57879 times)

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Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #45 on: June 28, 2017, 02:24:55 PM »
Okay, I was hoping to have the next dungeon (in terms of what's completed, not what's released) ready before another update, but with Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy coming out tomorrow, I don't see much work happening for a while, and at the moment I've only got the dungeon maybe 40% complete.

So, here's the V019 update, without that dungeon, but still wtih a couple of new ones that weren't in the previous releases (and the stuff that was accessible but crashed in V017x now works fine!).

Aside from this extra content, there have been a couple more very minor rebalancing touches, a few bugfixes, and two major changes to game mechanics:
- You can now save anywhere (from the menu). This does not recover your HP. Save crystals still exist, and do recover your HP, but they are now much rarer.
- An option has been added (in the battle commands menu) to turn the turn order display on or off. This does not take up the character's turn, just in case anyone was worried about that. It should default to on, but it's easy to change if it doesn't.

Fresh install: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpivtcoawqo7sy3/LoaO_V019_Fresh.zip?dl=1
Upgrade: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pnn8l8xod0b26q0/LoaO_V019_Upgrade.zip?dl=1
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Offline Proxima

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #46 on: June 28, 2017, 05:02:43 PM »
So I feel this is a good point for me to pause and give my own feedback on the game so far :)

First and most importantly, I really love this game. I don't have much experience of RPGs -- the only ones I've played to completion are FF9 and Chrono Trigger, both a long time ago. This has the same elements of fun -- exploring dungeons, mazes and puzzles; beating up monsters in a simple turn-based combat system; developing your characters through level progression, equipment and new abilities; making choices for how to develop, with both immediate and long-term strategic implications; easily defeating monsters that had been a huge threat earlier in the game ;) But this game adds an extra dimension, in that most of the bosses are really challenging and force the player to observe the boss's mechanics and weak points, and come up with a strategy to take them out. Sometimes this takes the form of single "aha" insights that are really satisfying when they click (as with that one boss in Taspia...); other times it's a gradual process of improving one's strategy and making further observations and tweaks, as with DT. It's been a huge amount of fun so far, and I really hope that's come out in my video series.

It's also a pleasure to be working with a developer who takes feedback seriously and improves those parts of the game that are less fun, like a change namida made just now to the second-last boss I've reached, which will make that fight much more fun and less frustrating.

Now I'm going to go into detail about parts of the game, and mechanics you might not learn for a while, so everything from now on may contain spoilers up to the part I've reached, namely the "W" (1 word, 6 letters) boss. Also, there may be some duplication with what I've already said in my videos; but it's more convenient for namida to have everything in a post like this than to have to rewatch 25 hours of video footage if he wants to look over my feedback again.

General comments (click to show/hide)

Dungeon layouts and mapping (click to show/hide)

Game mechanics (click to show/hide)

Boss-by-boss breakdown (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: June 29, 2017, 02:10:32 AM by Proxima »

Offline Nepster

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #47 on: June 28, 2017, 06:04:40 PM »

Offline Proxima

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #48 on: June 28, 2017, 09:14:38 PM »
What exactly do you suggest in your last sentence?

Touch encounters: RPG Maker jargon for visible events that trigger encounters when touched, like the Nom Plants and Transient Lites.

Quote
Anyway, perhaps one could even remove "No Encounters" and the ability to half the number of encounters. Of course one would need some way to be able to comfortable visit old areas. So why not disable random encounters entirely once the following two conditions are met:

Interesting idea, but it doesn't fully meet my objection. Since one can escape from any random encounter, dungeons that are just mazes with no puzzles and no touch encounters can be trivialised, allowing players to make off with all the loot for free.

* * *

A couple more points. I won't spoiler-tag these, as they refer to the very beginning of the game.

In the early game, Tara and Leanna don't have any tools other than "attack" or "attack with chance of status". There's some strategy in when to apply status, but the early game is still fairly monotonous. One possibility would be to give one of them a single-target ATK buff and the other a DEF buff; there is then a bit more strategy in that you have to decide whether to use these buffs, or try to inflict status, or just go all-out with attacks.

One of the tutorial NPCs in Caralint describes undead as "like having a permanent Zombie status", but this is before Zombie status has appeared or been explained. I'd prefer it if he just explained that being undead makes healing spells hurt, and then later, explain Zombie status as having the same effects as being undead. (Possibly, this explanation should appear in the description of Amanda's Curse, which is the first time Zombie status appears. Or introduce a monster that can cast Zombie in the forest.)

Offline ccexplore

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #49 on: June 29, 2017, 01:34:05 AM »
Since one can escape from any random encounter, dungeons that are just mazes with no puzzles and no touch encounters can be trivialised, allowing players to make off with all the loot for free.

It's a reasonable suggestion to compensate for this by adding more touch encounters like you suggested.  Personally I think a player who is over-reliant on escaping random encounters will already be missing out a lot (the random encounters are arguably a core part of the RPG experience, and you gain a lot of levels, experiences, etc. rewards from such encounters, which in turn affects your ability to deal with bosses), so trivializing the dungeon would probably just be yet another way they are ruining the game for themselves with their choices.

I would only add that if an area may be forced to be revisited in a later part of the game (but without introducing anything new in terms of monsters etc. so it's just basically forced walking), the part of the game when it is getting revisited, should preferably have much reduced touch encounters compared to earlier, since at that point it's arguably no longer about tackling the dungeon.

=========================

And +1 to Proxima's opinion on new vs old title.  Surely we can find a better title that is not so bland- and generic-sounding, but still accurate to the game (which was the main reason why the old title was discontinued).

Offline Proxima

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #50 on: June 29, 2017, 01:56:18 AM »
And +1 to Proxima's opinion on new vs old title.  Surely we can find a better title that is not so bland- and generic-sounding, but still accurate to the game (which was the main reason why the old title was discontinued).

I should mention that I completely sympathise with it being difficult to come up with a good title. The Descent of King Hesper, the currently ongoing DROD level set that I'm organising, went untitled for two and a half years before I came up with that one.

Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #51 on: June 29, 2017, 04:29:50 AM »
Released a V019A update that fixes a bug that wasn't allowing save-anywhere on some save files. Links are the same as before, I just updated the ZIP files. If you've got the up-to-date one, it will have a text file mentioning this.



Found a bug that may affect some players. If you've beaten a very unusual boss fight, with a 9-letter name starting with M, and what you think you need to do next seems to be disabled...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It is possible to go about events in such an order that this bug never occurs, but I suspect the majority of players will do things in the order that does lead to this, as that's the order the game pushes you to do them in.

I don't see this as worthy of releasing another update just to fix, so I'm simply pointing it out. It'll be fixed in the next update.
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Offline Nepster

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #52 on: June 29, 2017, 08:37:20 PM »

Edit: Added one more bug to the list.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2017, 08:57:16 PM by Nepster »

Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #53 on: June 30, 2017, 01:45:28 PM »
Another bug. Read only once you've either fought (not necesserially defeated) a Specimen, or obtained a Lab Key, unless you don't care about mechanics spoilers (there are no plot spoilers).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While this one is a tad more significant, I still feel it can wait until the next update.



The bug Nepster mentioned, and Proxima also noted in one video, ...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

... is now also fixed. This was quite a tricky one; I'm still not entirley sure what caused it, I just found a workaround that seems to work.

« Last Edit: June 30, 2017, 02:14:49 PM by namida »
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Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #54 on: June 30, 2017, 02:43:05 PM »
An idea I'm considering and would like input on. I'm not sure how to spoiler-tag this in a way that makes it clear what it's about without the warning itself being a spoiler (it is only mechanics spoilers, not plot ones, though; but it is possibly one of the largest mechanics spoilers in the game), but I can say that this won't be a spoiler for either Nepster or Proxima. It's possible to play through all current content without this ever becoming a not-spoiler though, so read with caution. If you've completed the content in the current demo and have been making a point of finding optional stuff, this will probably not be a spoiler for you.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: June 30, 2017, 03:07:32 PM by namida »
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Offline Proxima

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #55 on: June 30, 2017, 05:05:13 PM »
Thoughts on the above. Same spoiler warning applies. (Don't read unless, at the very least, you've reached and thoroughly explored Sysona.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #56 on: July 01, 2017, 11:58:36 AM »
Regarding Proxima's run,
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #57 on: July 04, 2017, 07:30:37 AM »
As I mentioned in chat, the only thing left before I can make the next release is some more testing. :)

Progress:

Current ETA: Within the next 24 hours
« Last Edit: July 05, 2017, 05:16:32 PM by namida »
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Offline namida

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #58 on: July 05, 2017, 05:38:16 PM »
V020 update is here at last! :)

This adds both some new storyline content and some new optional content. There's also bugfixes (as usual), as well as that you now start with three slots, but throughout the course of the game can expand that to six. There have also been some minor tweaks, as usual.

Fresh install: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e5xm0jxnlcmsf9y/LoaO_V020_Fresh.zip?dl=1
Upgrade: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vpxpn1m0c5hnvnc/LoaO_V020_Upgrade.zip?dl=1
My Lemmings projects
2D Lemmings: NeoLemmix (engine) | Lemmings Plus Series (level packs) | Doomsday Lemmings (level pack)
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Offline Proxima

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Re: [PC][RPG] Legends of an Otherworld
« Reply #59 on: July 05, 2017, 06:15:50 PM »
A couple of issues:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)